


Lonely Hearts Club

by CSM



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, First Loves, Fluff, Humour, Kid Fic, Nanny Felicity, childhood best friends, single parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:07:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 57,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSM/pseuds/CSM
Summary: AU. Oliver Queen needs a nanny for his 8 month old son William and hires Felicity Smoak, who just so happens to be his childhood best friend and first love who he has not seen in 15 years.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 623
Kudos: 733





	1. Chapter 1

“Okay Will, you got this.” Oliver cheers as he walks around the kitchen frantically trying to clean up the last bit of pumpkin purée that has splattered all over the kitchen counter.

8 month old William slaps the plastic tray table hard on the highchair sending his father a two tooth grin. 

Oliver laughs and grabs a nearby dishcloth to wipe away some stray pumpkin from his face. Oliver looks back at his son, right in his baby blue eyes so full of innocence and blissful unawareness of how much stress his father is under. 

“ _ We _ need to find someone who will look after you at any hour of the day ‘cause Daddy’s job is crazy right now. So you gotta be on your best behaviour, alright?”

William only gurgles in response and offers Oliver a fist filled of pumpkin purée that is oozing out of his chubby little fingers.

“Leave those special little surprises and your tantrums at least till the third day.” Oliver continues. He grabs William by the arms and hoists the baby out of the high chair. “Daddy needs this to work so that he can be the mayor and take care of you and tell Grandma Moira to shove it.”

William’s little brow wrinkles at the mention of his grandmother’s name. “Look little man, we love Grandma but she doesn’t think you and I can handle things on our own. But we totally got this right?”

The only response Oliver gets is a large fist of pumpkin in his face and now running down his brand new shirt. Oliver sighs, “this is what I get for changing into my work clothes before I feed you. C’mon you little pumpkin smasher.”

William bounces excitedly in Oliver’s arms as they make their way to the bathroom. Oliver has exactly 10 minutes before the first candidate arrives and Oliver needed the place to be spotless, which it was, minus William and himself, it seems.

The nanny agency promised complete anonymity, and a thorough background check on all their candidates. He also knows that a few added precautions were put in place, given the nature of Oliver’s job as the mayor.

The agency also recommended that Oliver only interview one candidate a day, to limit the amount of people that come into his house. Oliver, personally, thinks it’s a bit much, but he allows for his chief of security, John Diggle, to take point in those matters. All he needs to do is interview the prospective candidates to see who would be best suited to watch his son. 

As Oliver begins to take more of his workload off his deputy Mayor, he needs to secure a trusted stay at home nanny to take care of his son. His son who up until now, has only been around his sister and his mother. His son is also not too keen on strangers, which if you asked him any other time, he would’ve been relieved that he didn’t have to teach his son about “stranger danger”, but right now it’s yet another complication for Oliver in choosing a nanny. As if he needed anymore of that. 

Oliver’s been the Mayor of Starling City for the past year, but when a woman he had a one night stand ended up pregnant, he had to relinquish a lot of his duties to his deputy. Samantha came into his life like a whirlwind, they tried to make it work for the baby but in the end realized that they weren’t right for each other. One month after William was born Samantha realized  _ he _ was not right for her either and she left with all but a text to Oliver. 

That’s all their son meant to her, a  _ text _ . 

Oliver shakes his head clearing his mind of those memories, he can’t dwell on them without ruining his mood and he can’t have that when he needs to be at his best for the interview. Can’t have them running away because of his, as Thea put it, “surly attitude”. Plus, it’s been 7 months and he and William are doing  _ great _ .

Except for the small part that Oliver now needs a live-in nanny to watch after his son as he starts taking back full responsibility as Mayor. 

The sound of the doorbell startles Oliver so much he drops the bar of soap in the empty tub and William bursts out into tears, frightened. 

“Oh, buddy, it’s okay. You’re okay.” Oliver soothes as he scoops his son out of the baby bath tub and wraps him up in a fluffy towel. He brushes the towel over William’s face enticing loud giggles in return. His little round cheeks are still red but he’s not crying which Oliver takes as win.

The doorbell rings again, and Oliver winces, he forgot about the nanny. He looks down at his pumpkin stained shirt that’s now soaked from William’s bath then his semi dry son, whose wet hair is sticking up in all directions and is naked as the day he was born.

“Well, I guess we might as well show her what she’s signing up for from the get go uh?” Oliver quips.

He quickly makes his way towards the front door just as the doorbell rings for the third time. “We’re making a  _ terrible _ first impression.”

He swings open the front door and stops short when he sees a young woman, around his age, standing at the door. He was expecting someone more along his mother’s age. When neither of them say anything, he clears his throat and holds out his hand in greeting. 

“Hi. I’m…”

“Oliver Queen?”

The young woman tucks a lock of curly blond hair behind her ear and looks at him in surprise. Oliver has assumed the agency would give the nannies his name at least.

She fixes the thin purple framed glasses on her nose and that’s when Oliver finally sees her eyes. Clear blue eyes with small specks of green stare back at him. He knows those eyes, he  _ remembers _ those eyes.

“Felicity? Felicity Kuttler?” Oliver says equally flabbergasted. “What are you doing here?”

“Oliver, hi. It’s Felicity Smoak now….uh long story.” Felicity holds up the custom made folder with the nanny agency logo in the front, “I’m uh...here for the job interview.”

“Oh.” Oliver replies and then startled in realization, “ _ oh.  _ Uh come in. This is uh William, my son.”

“Hi, William,” she tries to take his hand but William pulls back and buries his face in Oliver’s shoulders, hiding from her. 

“He’s just a little shy around strangers,” Oliver explains. He presses a kiss to William’s head and rubs his son’s back. “C’mon buddy say hi to Felicity.”

William peaks at Felicity with uncertainty and Felicity holds out her hand to him. He eyes her hand, then looks at Oliver then back at her before he finally grabs her finger, she shakes it much like you would with an adult and William giggles loudly in response. He reaches up and pats Felicity on the face earning a soft giggle from the blonde in return. 

Oliver’s heart skips a beat at the sound. He is taken back to 15 years ago at his parent’s cottage and the sound of her giggles that made his heart skip a beat for the first time.

“ He’s a charmer,” Felicity says with a laugh just as William grabs her glasses. She shakes her finger at him lightly and gently pries it out of his son’s grabby hands.

“Once he warms up to someone. Sorry, I honestly tried to have us both a little bit more presentable when you arrived,” Oliver says sheepishly, gesturing to his stained shirt and his naked son who is still wrapped in a towel. 

“It’s okay, I figured most best laid plans don’t go as you want with an 8 month old,” Felicity quips but Oliver can see she’s slightly unease as she looks at him then at William

“If this is too weird…you know with everything…” Oliver trails off giving her an out.

But Felicity suddenly straightens her spine and whatever cloud of uncertainty that crossed her expression is now gone, “No, no. I  _ need _ this job….uh I mean... It’s fine with me, if it’s fine with you?”

Before Oliver can reply, William yells out to Felicity and raises his hand at her, Felicity gives him a high five again at which William practically preens at the attention. This is typical for William, he’s a curious baby, having been in Oliver’s office enough times the last few weeks, William is used to seeing strangers always wary of them but, Thea recently taught him how to high five so he’s been offering up his hand to anyone willing to entertain him. To Oliver’s relief Felicity seems equally enamoured by William.

“It looks like William decided for us.” Oliver says with a laugh hoping to ease the tension, but when Felicity still looks uncertain. Oliver is equally uncertain, but he’s also desperate to find a nanny and the curious part of him wants to know more about Felicity and what she’s been up to since he last saw her. 

He takes a step to the side and gestures for her to come in, “Felicity, you came all this way. I’d like to catch up with you, even if you don’t want to take the job.”

She seems to struggle internally with herself, but then nods and holds up a finger, “Alright, let me just grab my stuff.”

Oliver frowns slightly confused, but his eyebrows shoot up in surprise, when Felicity disappears into the hallway and comes back with a medium size suitcase and duffle bag. On seeing his expression she raises her free hand in defense, “I was not being presumptuous, I came straight from the airport.”

“Did you go on vacation?” Oliver asks conversationally. He takes the suitcase and rolls it to the corner of the living room before taking a seat on the armchair. William still bundled up in his arms, and now sucking on the corner of his towel, the baby’s eyes still trained on Felicity, full of suspicion.

“No, I uh...I actually moved back to Starling….today.” She explains with a sheepish shrug of her shoulders.

“ _ Today?”  _ Oliver repeats in surprise, “From London?”

The last time he saw Felicity she was moving away with her family to the UK.

“Boston actually. I went to MIT and graduated back in June.”

It still doesn’t explain why she’s at his doorstep applying for a live in nanny job. Felicity seems to pick up on his confusion and quickly elaborates.

“The move to Starling was sudden and this job came with accomodations, which would save me a lot of time.”

Time for  _ what _ exactly? 

Oliver only has a million more questions at her explanation, but he knows it’s not his place to ask. From her uncertain expression, Oliver knows that  _ she _ knows it’s half ass explanation. But, he can also tell that she’s desperate and part of him needs to know that she’s okay.

“Have you taken care of a baby before?” Oliver asks and he can tell that she’s surprised by the turn of events. If she only knew he already made his decision.

“I used to babysit back in middle school, remember?” Felicity offers sheepishly, and they both know that is  _ not _ exactly what Oliver had in mind.

“Felicity, I know it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, but if there is something wrong…”

“Fifteen years, Oliver. It’s been Fifteen years.” Felicity is quick to point out, her defenses raise immediately. Oliver can see the way her fingers go white as she clutches her handbag and he wonders if she’s going to leave.

“I know, but we used to be best friends. All I’m saying is, you can talk to me if you need to.” Oliver offers.

He watches her closely, waiting to see if she opens up, but she only looks at him with a blank expression, “I just need to know if I got the job or not, or if I should start scouting job listings once I check into my motel.”

With those words Oliver knows the conversation with regards to her past is over. Logically, he knows he should  _ not _ be offering her this job. He does not know this woman, not anymore. She is not the 16 year old babbling brunette he grew up with. He has absolutely no reason to trust her, especially with his son. But then he looks at her and all he sees is the short skinny 16 year old with a mouth full of braces and wild curly brown hair and those bright blue hopeful eyes and he’s 16 all over again ready to run after an angry goose to get her phone back. What is it about Felicity Kuttler-ney Smoak that  _ still _ has him throwing logic out the window?

“Can you start tonight?” Oliver asks her expectantly. 

He really hopes he doesn’t regret this. 

“Really?” Felicity’s eyes widen in surprise, she gets to her feet and takes Oliver’s hand in hers, shaking it repeatedly, “Thank you so much, Oliver. Thank you.”

William claps excitedly, clearly feeding off of Felicity’s excitement and Oliver can’t help but laugh when Felicity gives the baby a high five and his son laughs out loud raising his hand again for her to slap.

They at least seem to get along great, which helps ease Oliver’s uncertainty about hiring Felicity on the spot.

“I have the guest room all set up for you. Will you be shipping the rest of your things?” Oliver asks curiously. 

“Nope, I’ve got everything I need.” She gestures to the lone suitcase and single duffel bag resting in the corner of the living room

Oliver frowns in confusion, “wait is that all you own?”

He can see the way her shoulders tense at his words but by the time she turns around she is smiling back at him. Oliver doesn’t know her well enough to know how genuine it is, but he dismisses those thoughts as easily as they come.

“Yea, student housing was a steal, fully furnished with like 5 other roommates, but hey it worked for four years. Anyway, moving back to Starling, I only came with the essentials. When I said this job came with perfect timing I was not kidding. I hope that’s okay?”

She still babbles endlessly like he remembers and it brings a smile to Oliver’s face, despite his initial concerns. “Of course, the room is furnished with the basics but you can change it up anyway you like. What’s mine and William’s is also yours. Help yourself. I’m just gonna get him dressed before he  _ really  _ gives off a bad first impression.”

Felicity’s nose wrinkles at the implications and Oliver only grins sheepishly and he, not for the first time wonders if she knows exactly what she signed up for.

“Your room is the last door on the left,” He calls out to Felicity just before he disappears down the corridor towards William’s nursery. 

“I think she likes you, buddy,” Oliver whispers to his son peppering kisses on his chubby cheek. At least he  _ thinks  _ she likes his son. Who doesn’t like babies? 

“Well done. High five!” He holds out his hand and laughs when William slaps it eagerly, then the baby breaks out into loud laughter.

The towel suddenly becomes warm and wet to the touch and Oliver grimaces in disgust, “ _ Dude. _ Not cool.”

William only garbles back in response looking at Oliver curiously.

Oliver sighs and tosses the wet towel on the overflowing hamper. “At least you waited till  _ after _ we met Felicity, thanks for  _ that _ .”

As expected he only gets a babble in return and Oliver only laughs as he moves to the changing table.

* * *

Felicity places her laptop bag on the couch and slowly begins to take in her surroundings. The living room is littered with baby toys and various stuffed animals, but other than the obvious mess the apartment is  _ really _ nice. The fireplace and walls are covered with pictures of William in various stages of his life. Some are professional shots that just screams Moira Queen while others are candids of Oliver and William or various different people Felicity is no longer familiar with.

Felicity looks at a contraption that looks like a swing, complete with a seat for the baby, but it clearly does not pivot like a swing. She presses one of the buttons and the seat bounces violently up and down. Felicity jumps in surprise when a soft beep is emitted, she takes a large step back and looks in the direction Oliver and William disappeared off too. She holds her breath waiting to see if Oliver returns and breathes a sigh of relief when he does not appear. 

Felicity looks around at the room apprehensively, half the baby items she doesn't even recognize. She is  _ way  _ in over her head here. 

She can’t believe four years at MIT studying a dual Bachelors and Masters in cybersecurity and yet here she is a glorified Mary Poppins.

She doesn't even get the fancy bottomless bag, either.

What was she even  _ thinking _ coming here? The notion that she can even take care of a  _ baby _ is ridiculous in itself, but  _ Oliver Queen _ ’s son is just asking for trouble. 

The moment he opened that front door for her, she should have grabbed her bags and turned around immediately. 

Except this job came at the perfect opportunity. A easy paying job, with a high profile client meant that her identity would be pretty much under lock and key. There is no way the  _ mayor _ would want anyone to know who is looking after his son. That coupled with the living arrangements made it the perfect job for her to keep a low profile and figure out her next steps.

She figures she could do this job for the next 6 to 9 months then figure out her game plan and just slip away as easily as she came.

The only problem is Oliver Queen was not part of her plans. 

_ Oliver Queen.  _

She has not thought about him in over 15 years. Time has done well for him over the years. No longer is he the tall lanky boy with a head full of hair that she had a crush on. Don’t get her wrong, he’s still handsome as ever, with those brilliant blue eyes that make her go weak at the knees, but just like her, she can see that time has taken a toll on him. Gone are that boyish smile always full of mischief and adventure, and instead she can see the man that’s been through a lot. 

The fact that he’s a single father and the  _ mayor _ of Starling City, speaks for itself. She knows there is a story there about William’s mother and the curious side of her is  _ dying  _ to know that story. But if she wants to leave in the next 9 months with a clean break. She knows she can’t get involved in Oliver’s past anymore than she let  _ him _ get tangled in her own past. Especially when there is an 8 month old involved.

She is way in over her head.

Felicity plops onto the couch with a deep sigh, and groans when she sits on something hard, she pulls out a pacifier and frowns.

“Sorry about that, those things are  _ everywhere _ . Will has a tendency to just throw them every time he gets mad.” Oliver comes rushing into the room, freshly dressed and William in a cute koala onesie, complete with little ears. 

Felicity has to admit the kid looks adorable. To her surprise Oliver deposits the baby in her unexpecting arms and gently ruffles William’s hair, “Be good for Felicity, okay?”

“Wait, what?” Felicity calls out in alarm, she tightens her grip on the baby as he wiggles his arms clearly wanting to get away and Oliver does not take him from her much to her  _ and _ William’s chagrin, “you’re leaving?”

“I have to go into the office because there is an emergency. It should only be an hour or two.” Oliver explains anxiously. He never intended on hiring someone today much less  _ leaving  _ William with them so soon. “You can handle this, right?”

“Yea, I totally got this,” Felicity replies hoping she sounds convincing, but at Oliver’s uncertain look she bounces William in her arms and the baby stops whimpering and looks at her curiously it’s clear he’s still trying to figure her out. It’s not exactly what Felicity was hoping for, but it works, kinda, Google has not failed her yet, “see? William and I totally got this. You go do your Mayor things and we will hold down the fort.”

Oliver looks from William and back to her with uncertainty. He glances at his watch nervously, then back at Felicity and Felicity wonders if he’s regretting hiring her on a limb already. “All the emergency numbers are written on the fridge including my cellphone. If you have a problem call me. If you can’t get onto me, call John Diggle, he’s my chief of security and  _ always _ available 24/7 no matter what. I’ll call you… I don’t even have your number. Maybe I should try and work from home today.”

She goes to protest, but Oliver is already pulling out his cellphone and dialing a number. He walks off to the other side of the living room through two glass doors and Felicity can see it’s his home office.

“I guess your Dad doesn’t quite trust me to look after you yet on my own,” Felicity quips to William. Large round blue eyes stare back at her owlishly, the baby seems unaware that Oliver left the room as he’s busy sucking on his fingers staring up at Felicity, like he is still trying to figure her out.

The feeling is mutual, kid.

Felicity narrows her eyes staring the baby down. To her amusement, William’s little forehead wrinkles as he mimics her and stares back unblinkingly. After two second though he smiles shyly before he bops her nose with the palm of his hand. 

“Two can play this game,” she quips and then pressed her index finger on William’s nose. The baby releases a loud belly laugh and hits her again on the nose.

He knows what a  _ game  _ is, it seems _. _

When he hits again but this time causing her glasses to almost fall off her face. She grabs his little hand, and looks at him sternly, “William no!”

It was the wrong thing to say cause the baby immediately burst out into tears. Felicity looks at him in horror, “okay no. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. I’m sorry. Don’t cry. Your dad left five seconds ago. Don’t cry, hit me in the face again if you must.”

But William cries only get louder.

“Felicity? Everything okay?” Oliver calls out with concern. 

“Everything is fine!” Felicity replies, already moving them away from the office her eyes searching around the living room for  _ anything _ to occupy the baby. When she spies one of the pacifiers on the coffee table she scoops it up immediately. 

She looks done at the rubber nipple that appears to be clear of any dirt and pops into William’s mouth. She then holds her breath waiting to see if he spits it out. When he starts to suck on it, she breathes a sigh of relief.

“See? I totally got this, right?” William's nose only wrinkles as he looks at her curiously. The pink colour in his cheeks is already fading. 

“I got this,” Felicity mutters to herself as she walks the length of the living room. 

After a few minutes, the glass doors to Oliver’s office are now closed and she’s still walking the length of the living room. William, luckily, is still quietly sucking on his pacifier and blue eyes boring into her. Felicity feels as though he’s just waiting for her to fuck up.

“What do babies even  _ do _ ?” She asks him curiously, not like she’s expecting an answer. “Google said the most you can do now is sit up and maybe crawl. Do you wanna do that? Do I just put you on the floor and let you go wild?”

Blue eyes blink back at her curiously, William silent to her questions. Not that she expected a response.

“Your dad doesn’t even have a rug in the living room. That’s gotta be hard on those chubby little knees of yours, right?” 

William’s nose wrinkles and Felicity immediately begins to walk up and down the hallway, afraid he might spit out the pacifier and start to cry again. 

“Yea, I wouldn’t want to crawl on this floor either. So how do you spend your day, kid?” She walks back into the living room, and eyes the tv thoughtfully, “How about we watch some TV, that should be fun right?”

The moment she takes a seat on the couch, William spits out the pacifier and breaks out into tears. Felicity leaps to her feet and grabs the pacifier before it falls to the floor. “Okay no sitting then.”

Big fat tears roll down his cheeks as he continues to cry. She glances at the office, but luckily Oliver seems tied up with a phone conversation. 

“Hey, hey don’t you want your sucky thing?” Felicity asks the crying baby waving the pacifier in front of William’s face.

To her relief when he catches sight of the brightly coloured pacifier he grabs it and quickly pops it into his mouth.

“ There we go,” Felicity sighs with relief. William continues to stare back at her, is it possible for a baby to judge you  _ this  _ harshly? But despite this, he does remain quiet and does not try to get away, something she read babies tend to do. “Oh. Okay, this is easier than all the books said it would be. I got this.”

She pulls back to peer down at the baby to see William’s eyes are fluttering closed, his head dropping on her shoulder. “Okay so maybe you just needed somewhere to sleep either way, one point for Team Felicity. Maybe I can add baby whisperer to my resume.”

As she says that William shifts in Felicity’s arms she freezes and holds her breath. “Okay, let’s not get cocky.”

After a few seconds and the baby continues to sleep soundly in her arms, Felicity gently eases herself onto the couch holding her breath as she moves. When the baby does not wake she breathes another sigh of relief.

“Hey, everything's okay in here?” Oliver calls out, almost startling her.

“We’re good. Totally fine. Everything is under control,” she calls out then winces when the baby shifts.

Luckily, William does not wake up and Oliver disappears back into his office none the wiser.

She’s totally got this under control. She’s got a dual masters degree in computer science and cyber security. She can more than handle an 8 month old.

She shifts on the couch yet again, but then her elbow hits the remote and it goes sliding off the couch and onto the tilted floor with a loud crash and William wakes up and immediately bursts into tears and pushes at her clearly not wanting her to hold him. She has to tighten her grip on him but he still continues to fight her, crying out in protest.

Oh she is way in over her head.

* * *

**FIFTEEN YEARS AGO**

_ “Felicity, you’re doing it wrong,” sixteen year old Oliver complains. He goes to grab the fishing rod but sighs when Felicity only clutches it to her chest tighter. _

_ “Oliver, I can do it!” She insists.  _

_ “Just be careful,” Oliver relents, his eyes trained on the hook that’s swaying a few inches from Felicity’s face. “You need to bait the hook, and then cast the rod. Do you need me to put the fish on the hook?” _

_ Felicity's nose wrinkles and she looks at him in confusion, the fishing rod now hanging off her shoulder, and Oliver needs to take a step back before she swipes him with it. “Why would you put the fish on? I thought the whole point of fishing was so that you caught the fish with the hook?” _

_ Oliver grins, Felicity is the smartest person he knows, but when it comes to fishing, she’s as bad at it as he is with math and he loves the fact that he can finally teach her something.  _

_ “I use smaller fish as bait,” he explains easily. He opens up a bucket and can’t help but laugh when Felicity squeals and jumps at least 5 feet away from him. _

_ “Those are dead fish, Oliver!” Felicity squeals again. She peers into the bucket, her face wrinkled in disgust, “you have cut up dead fish, Oliver.” _

_ “It’s what my Grandpa Lucas always used,” Oliver said with a shrug. He picks up a fish head and wiggles it at Felicity who drops the fishing rod and runs at least 10 feet from him, squealing in disgust, “Grandpa Lou, said the head was the best bait.” _

_ “Why not use the whole fish?” Felicity asks, curiously despite her squeamish attitude, Oliver can tell that she’s already intrigued at what he is doing.  _

_ Despite her curiosity, she still keeps a good 6 feet away from him. _

_ “It’s harder to catch the tiny fish and sometimes you need to improvise,” Oliver replies easily, almost repeating exactly what his Grandpa used to tell him. _

_ He picks up the fallen rod, holds it between his legs and then grabs the hook. He pointedly ignores Felicity’s gagging sounds behind him when he jabs the hook through the head and shakes the hook to ensure the head is on properly. _

_ “That’s disgusting,” Felicity declares.  _

_ She sounds closer than she was before and he turns his head surprised to see her just a foot away. Her face is still wrinkled in disgust, but she has clearly decided she does not need to stay 10 feet away from him and the dead fish. _

_ “Do you want me to cast it for you?” Oliver asks with amusement. _

_ Unsurprisingly, she shakes her with that stubborn determination Oliver is fond of. She eyes the hook warily but still takes the offered rod from him. _

_ “You remember what I taught you?” Oliver asks her as he takes a few steps away from her, giving her room to cast the line. _

_ “Back. Swish. Release.” Felicity parrots with concentration. Concentration Oliver only has ever seen when she’s doing homework. _

_ He watches as she does exactly what he showed her and casts the line perfectly, the hook and sinker go sailing across the lake landing a good 30 feet away. _

_ She sends him a smug smirk and Oliver feels his pants tighten immediately. A weird situation for that to be happening but he can’t help it. He quickly turns his attention back to the bucket in front of him, and fixes his pants under the guise of ensuring the bucket is sealed.  _

_ His… little (or big as he likes to think) situation has become a normal occurrence every time he’s around Felicity lately. He almost cancelled their fishing trip, afraid of what would happen, but he’s still a fifteen year old boy and the prospect of spending the entire afternoon with his best friend in a bikini at the lake won. _

_ It’s not just that though, Felicity is great. The best person he knows. The smartest person he knows. He doesn’t know when he stopped seeing her as just his best friend, but all he knows is he really, really wants to kiss her.  _

_ He doesn’t even know if she likes him the way he likes her, and the thought terrifies him. She’s only a few months younger than Oliver but she’s always been focused with school, she’s even skipping a grade next year or something which, even though Oliver is really proud of her for it, the thought makes his gut twist uncomfortably.  _

_ She’s been distant with him lately and Oliver has been trying to get her to talk to him with no luck. She is the chatty one between the two of them. It’s disconcerting to say the least. _

_ He looks across at her and can’t help but smile. She is holding the fishing rod tightly every so often pulling at it, clearly impatient for a fish to bite. _

_ Her cheeks are pink from the sun, she forgot to pack a baseball hat yet again. Oliver shakes his head and tugs off his own baseball cap making his way to her.  _

_ “I told you to pack a hat,” Oliver says with exasperation. He places his hat on her head, and his heart clenches when she looks up at him from under the visor. Oliver is almost certain her blue eyes are sparkling up at him. _

_ “You’re cute.” Oliver blurts out, his ears warming in embarrassment. _

_ “Oh!” Felicity squeaks out, almost dropping the fishing rod, but she still looks up at him with wide curious eyes. _

_ “Felicity.”  _

_ Oliver licks his lips, mesmerized by the way her teeth sink into her bottom lip and just as he’s about to lean in to kiss her when the fishing rod jerk’s in her hands and Felicity squeals out in surprise. _

_ The moment lost. _

_ “Oliver! I have a fish!” Felicity yells excitedly as she starts to reel in her line. “Oliver!” _

_ “Remember, reel, stop and pull.” Oliver instructs, he hovers next to her watching as she slowly reels in the fish.  _

_ He wants to step in and help her out but he knows how stubborn she can get, and she would insist on doing it herself. “You got this Felicity! Keep going!” _

_ He can cheer her on though. She grins at him tiredly as she continues to reel in her line, her curly brown hair is blowing in the wind, sweat dripping down the side of her face.  _

_ “You’re almost there! I can see it!” _

_ He bounces on the balls of his feet looking out into the distance and he can see the fish thrashing in the water. _

_ “Oh my god! Oliver I got it! I got it!” Felicity squeals in delight. The fish is huge hanging from the top of the fishing rod, and Olive makes a grab for the fish, afraid the rod might break under the weight. _

_ “Holy shit, this one is huge!” Oliver exclaims and grins when Felicity takes hold of it, her mouth wide in surprise. “Wait let me get my camera.” _

_ He quickly scrambles to her backpack and pulls out his disposable camera, taking a few shots of Felicity proudly holding up her catch. _

_ Oliver walks up to her and pulls her into a sideway hug, mindful of the squirming fish in her hand, “Felicity, you’re awesome.” _

_ Felicity’s face is pink from exertion, at some point she had flipped his hat around so now Oliver can see her full face. She looks beautiful, even though she kinda smells like fish and that’s when Oliver kisses her. She squeaks out in surprise, but then kisses him back, both of them slightly fumbling, neither quite too sure what to do. _

_ When Oliver pulls back, his chest is heaving and Felicity’s lips are slightly swollen and they are both smiling at each other shyly. _

_ “I wanted to do that for a really long time,” Oliver confesses. Felicity is uncharacteristically quiet and it makes Oliver nervous. _

_ “I really liked it.” Felicity squeaks out, but she immediately looks away. _

_ Oliver boldly takes her free hand and squeezes her fingers. When she finally looks up at him with uncertainty he smiles at her, “I really, really, really, really liked kissing you too.” _

_ When Felicity giggles at his not so exasperated response, it takes everything in Oliver to not pump his fist in the air. _

_ “Maybe we can come out to the lake a few times over the summer?” Oliver asks her hopefully. It’s the only place they get privacy and away from their families. _

_ He leans forward to kiss her again, but Felicity turns her head and Oliver’s lips briefly graze her cheeks before he pulls back, slightly confused, that is until he sees her crestfallen face. _

_ “Felicity?” _

_ “I shouldn’t have done that,” Felicity replies meekly. She pulls her hand out of his grasp and takes a step away from him.  _

_ “Felicity, I don’t understand.” When she does not reply, does not even look at him Oliver begins to wonder if this is why she’s been so distant with him. “Talk to me, Felicity. We’re best friends, you know you can tell me anything. I’m sorry I kissed you. If you did not want me to kiss you…” _

_ “No it’s not that!” Felicity quickly interrupts. Oliver’s elation is short lived though at her next words. “I’m...I just…” _

_ But to Oliver's surprise, she grabs him by the face and kisses him firmly only the lips, when she pulls back, his face still in her hands she smiles at him shyly, “I like you, and I don’t want to second guess things.” _

_ “I like you too,” Oliver confesses, breathing a sigh of relief. He wants to prod her a bit more for the sudden change in attitude, but then she’s kissing him again, and Oliver decides right then and there that kissing Felicity is the best thing in the world, and nothing else matters anyway. _

_ They have all the time in the world after all. _

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“You don’t think he likes her, but you  _ left _ him with her?” Thea repeats incredulously. She grabs one of her fries and points it at Oliver accusingly, “are you insane?”

“He’s 8 months old, he doesn’t like anyone but us. Felicity won’t do anything to him. As weird as it sounds, I trust her.” Oliver insists. 

It’s Wednesday afternoon and Oliver and Thea typically have lunch together in one of the restaurants near city hall, however, today he was busier than usual so Thea brought him some Big Belly Burger. He knows she’s a little annoyed - okay pissed off- that he hired the very first person he interviewed for a nanny. Even more so that she did not get to meet Felicity, especially as Thea has been the one taking care of William this past summer while she’s on summer break.

“Oliver, you said you knew this girl from high school. You don’t know her. Please tell me you didn’t just hire the first person - no the first  _ pretty _ girl you saw.” Thea’s hazel eyes narrow at Oliver and he’s offended she would even suggest that, even though it might be  _ partially _ true. Thea does not need to know that though.

“Of course not,” Oliver snaps back, growling at his sister who is clearly immune to his hostility, cause she only continues to stare him down. “I worked from home for a week, kept an eye on her. William seems to warm up to her, and she has a handle on it.”

“A  _ handle _ on it? Ollie, she doesn’t sound very capable,” Thea remarks warily, “ William isn’t very sure of himself when it comes to crawling, but soon he’ll be crawling everywhere, can she  _ handle _ that?”

Oliver shifts in his seat, taking a bite of his burger as he mulls over her question. He hates that she has him doubting his decision. Yes, Felicity seemed a little nervous around William and he certainly picked up on her feelings as he always begged Oliver to be the one taking care of him whenever he was around. But as the week progressed he watched Felicity more than handle her time with William, although she needs to work on meal time still since she ends up with more food covering her than what goes in William’s mouth, but she takes it in stride. Which is why Oliver was more than comfortable with letting today be her first official day with William on her own. It’s almost 1 in the afternoon and he has yet to get a text from Felicity much less a call. So clearly things are going great.

“Did you talk to John to install the nanny cam like Mom suggested?” Thea asks curiously. She snags some of Oliver’s onion rings and Oliver rolls his eyes pushing the half eaten bag to her. 

“No, I refuse to invade her privacy like that. I trust her, and I know you want to meet her, but let’s just give her a few days before you ambush her,” Oliver gives her a warning look when she doesn’t reply, “Thea I need your word that you will not go to my apartment and surprise her.”

Thea goes to protest, but she takes one look at Oliver and sighs in defeat, “fine, but I’m still coming over on Sunday for family movie night. You can’t hide your nanny forever.”

“Felicity, her name is Felicity,” Oliver corrects. 

He knows she’s right, he can keep Felicity and William away from city hall but he can’t keep her away from his family. The only reason his mother was not there to interview nannies with him is because she is currently in London with her husband Walter visiting family. He specifically waited to start the interview process the moment she got on the plane and had every intention to hire someone long before she came back.

Felicity didn’t fit into that equation, but she certainly sped up the process. 

“I feel like you’re not telling me something,” Thea remarks suddenly and Oliver squirms under her stare. However, before he can respond, the door to his office door flies open startling them both.

“No need to get up!” Tommy says dramatically as he offers the tray of coffee cups with a flourish, “I come bearing gifts!”

Oliver rolls his eyes while Thea eyes the brown paper bag neatly tucked between two coffee cups. “Apple fritter?”

“What do you take me for?” Tommy asks her affronted. He hands over the bag along with the only frozen coffee from the tray.

“The guy who slept with two sisters and still couldn’t keep their names straight,” Thea volleys back easily. She smirks across at Tommy as she takes a sip of the sweet concoction, that Oliver thinks should never even be called coffee.

“You wound me, Queen.” Tommy replies dramatically with a hand to his chest. He plops onto the adjacent chair, not at all bothered by her words.

When his best friend looks across at him offering his own smirk, Oliver had to have known the coffee run was under the guise of something else entirely.

“So did you tell her about the one that got away?” 

Oliver almost chokes on his coffee, while Thea slaps her coffee on the table, she looks at Oliver accusingly, “Please tell me the incubator is  _ not  _ the one that got away.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Tommy replies dismissively, neither of them waiting for Oliver to respond. 

He’s eventually going to have to get them to stop referring to Samantha as the incubator when William gets older, but for now Oliver’s own anger towards William’s mother is still too fresh. He can’t help it if the petty side of him enjoys it as well.

“Felicity Kuttler, damn. I haven’t heard that name in years,” Tommy whistles, as though he hadn’t begged Oliver for info regarding Felicity for days now. Which is why Oliver really shouldn’t be surprised when Tommy shows up in his office because Oliver refused to tell his best friend anything about Felicity.

“Actually, it’s Smoak now. Felicity Smoak.” Oliver corrects.

“Oh damn, I’m sorry man. She really is the one that got away.”

“Smoak is her mother’s maiden name.” Oliver quickly replies, but then regrets it almost immediately at Tommy’s smirk.

“ _ Really _ ?” Tommy sits up a little straighter in his seat, and Thea abandons her coffee yet again, “was that the first thing you asked her?”

“Wait, who is Felicity Smoak? I don’t remember her.” 

“Your brother’s first love,” Tommy teases gleefully, “His first kiss, the first girl to….”

“Ah! I don’t want to hear that!” Thea shouts loudly, cutting Tommy off. Tommy laughs wholeheartedly while Oliver scowls in annoyance at their antics.

“So I can walk in on you and that doorknob you call a boyfriend going at it like two bunnies in heat, but you don’t wanna hear about who he….” Tommy barks out a laugh when Thea starts humming loudly.

“You wanna hear how she stole my best friend for the summer, then whisked away to see the Queen, taking Oliver’s heart with her? Never to be seen again...until now that is.”

Oliver can’t help but roll his eyes at Tommy’s over dramatic storytelling, but then huffs when he realizes  _ Thea  _ is sitting on the edge of her seat listening to every word.

“We were sixteen, she did  _ not  _ steal my heart,” Oliver protests. He pointedly ignores the twinge in his chest when he thinks about that fateful day Felicity walked out of his life.

“Why don’t I remember her?” Thea bemoans, “Ollie’s first love! That’s someone I should remember!”

“You were four and more concerned with getting Felicity to play tea party with you whenever she visited. I hated it, but Felicity always spent time with you,” Oliver explains, remembering a particular day when they played hide and sneak with Thea and snuck into a closet to make out, the toddler none the wiser.

He can see that Thea is still drawing a blank at the memory, but she looks Oliver curiously and for once there isn’t accusation in her tone, only confusion, “you hired your ex-girlfriend? Why? Are you still in love with her?”

“Of course not, we were 16. What the hell did we know about love at that age?” Oliver remarks dismissively. 

Except deep down Oliver knows that’s not true because even now he’s yet to meet another girl that has been able to hold a candle next to Felicity. To be fair, he has never really given any other girl a  _ ch _ ance too. Moving from woman to woman would do that.

Tommy remains uncharacteristically mute and his pointed look makes Oliver squirm. Thea though seems to take his silence differently and looks at Tommy curiously. “Is she pretty?”

Tommy sits up at her question and Oliver can see the wheels already turning in his best friend’s head. “She was when we were younger, a little dorky,  _ but  _ your brother was absolutely smitten, now he refuses to let me see her.”

“He banned you too?” Thea remarks incredulously, “but you’ve met Felicity. You know Felicity. Ollie what gives?”

He now has matching pairs of hazel eyes staring back at him, demanding more. It’s been a few years since they’ve all found out the truth about Thea’s heritage but Oliver had never seen the resemblance between these two until this moment. 

“Felicity didn’t exactly like you when we were growing up, man.” Oliver points out and he realized belatedly that it was the wrong thing to say.

“The feeling was mutual,” Tommy grumbles as he folds his arms over his chest, “did you talk to her about leaving you?”

“She didn’t  _ leave _ me. Her dad got a promotion and they left.” Oliver counters, despite the fact that  _ Tommy _ was the one that listened to him go on about Felicity walking away. More specifically  _ how _ she walked away.

“Ollie….Ollie come on man you can’t be serious,” Tommy suddenly gets to his feet and throws up his arms in exasperation. 

Thea’s eyes are wide and curious. “What? What did he do?”

“I think he  _ loves _ her and wants to keep her to himself,” Tommy says in a sing-song voice. 

“ _ Ollie _ …”

“Okay, this...you two have to stop. Felicity is William’s nanny now there is nothing more to it. You will meet her this weekend like we discussed. You two will  _ not _ be plotting anything or giving her the second degree. You will treat her like any of my other employees. Understood?” He levels them with his sternest look and Thea for the most part seems to have relented.

Tommy, however….not so much. Oliver can see the glint in his best friend's eyes and he just knows this is gonna be some kind of challenge to him. 

“Did you pop the cherries of some of your other employees as well?” Thea asks innocently, and maybe Oliver underestimated his sister.

Tommy gasps dramatically at her words and then bows down at her, “I have taught you well young grasshopper.”

Oliver growls, opening his laptop glaring at both of them, “I don’t know why I even bother with the two of you, please close the door on your way out.”

“Ooh he’s mad,” Thea mocks whispers to Tommy, “I guess we do have to keep an eye on this one.”

“You realized he never did  _ deny _ that he loves her,'' Tommy points out as they gather their garbage and leave Oliver’s office.

He can hear the tail end of Thea asking Tommy to tell her the story of Oliver and Felicity and Oliver  _ hates _ that they got under his skin. He knows they are only teasing after all they are right it’s been  _ fifteen _ years Oliver clearly does not still have feelings for Felicity. 

Right?

* * *

“You know, when I got your cryptic email about heading to Starling City I thought for sure you got a break on your Dad’s case. I did  _ not _ expect you to be elbow deep in baby spit up.” Iris West peers at Felicity through the camera lens. Her nose wrinkles in disgust almost as if she can  _ smell _ the questionable baby fluids and food that are currently dripping from Felicity’s hair and chin.

“The job itself is very hush hush, as he does not want his son involved in any of the political mayhem. My name, my identity all of it is classified information. It was the perfect opportunity. It also came with a room and board.” 

Felicity explains easily, she conveniently does  _ not _ tell her best friend the small minor detail that her new boss is her  _ ex boyfriend _ . Iris doesn’t know the story about Oliver, no one does, except her mother that is. 

Her mother, god she misses her mother, she would know exactly what to do. Well not exactly, but she’s the only person she can talk to about all these repressed feelings about Oliver that are suddenly surfacing. One week  _ living _ with him and his son and Felicity feels like she’s 16 all over again and falling for that dimple smile.

“Felicity, you know  _ nothing _ about taking care of a baby. I’m a little surprised he even hired you given your complete lack of experience.” Iris replies and damn her best friend for being a journalist and her ability to sniff out  _ all  _ the details.

“He was in a pinch,” Felicity explains hoping her explanation will suffice her nosy best friend. “He’s been working from home for the past month when his last babysitter started university but the city is undergoing some major construction and he needs to oversee them. He stayed a week with us and then went off today. I have dual master degrees in cybersecurity. I think I can handle an 8 month old.”

She tears her gaze away from her iPad screen and looks at William who is currently feeding himself some soft cracker. The baby loves chewing on the food, most of it ends up all over his face and arms instead of his mouth but it can occupy him for  _ ages _ . 

It’s been a week since she moved in with Oliver and William and the baby still seems to not like her. No matter what she does, he always seems to be on the verge of tears. He actually does better playing on his own, if Felicity is out of his line of sight. 

Except when it comes to food, the kid  _ loves _ food. She doesn’t know much about babies but she did do research and at 8 months with three teeth, the kid is eating more than some toddlers. 

Oliver has him trying any and every food he’s allowed to have and William loves  _ everything _ . 

Oliver also makes  _ everything _ the baby eats, there are even little jars filled with purée fruits and veggies. Felicity still doesn’t know where he finds the  _ time _ to do this. He may have been home for the first week but he was almost always in his office or tending to William whenever the baby remembered that his father was only a cry away. 

“Well I guess as the mayor he has people to do background checks and all the precautions for him, were you the last person he met?” Iris inquires clearly assuming there was a multiple interview process for this job.

“Sure,” Felicity lies easily. She grabs William’s bottle before it falls off the high chair, and William immediately begins to bawl. “Hey, hey you were gonna throw it down. I’m not taking your milk, kid. Here!”

She offers it to him but he only cries louder, big wet tears rolling down his cheeks as his chubby little legs kick the tray of the high chair Iris is looking on in alarm. Unfortunately for Felicity this is not the first time this has happened. She raises both her arms showing that she’s not touching the bottle, “look I’m not touching it.”

William opens one eye and peers at her, then looks at the bottle then back at her, still sniffling. When he sees both her hands in the air he makes a grab for the bottle and hugs it tight to his chest, little eyes still watching her warily.

“He really does not like you,” Iris declares and Felicity is annoyed to hear the humour in her friend's voice when she turns to the screen she scowls in annoyance which only causes Iris to break out into laughter. “Oh my god.  _ Everyone _ likes you.”

“I  _ know!”  _ Felicity whines, “why won’t he like me? I’m a good person!”

Iris snickers and shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t know. Is it because you have been spending too much time with his father and he doesn’t like to share?”

“Oliver and I barely talk, beyond discussing William and what he needs, we haven’t really spoken,” Felicity admits and she hates that things are so awkward between them. 

But really what else did she expect? The last time she saw Oliver she was breaking up with him and getting on a plane to London.

She knows it was ages ago and they were just kids, but she’s still surprised he hired her on the spot like this. A small part of her thought maybe there were some lingering feelings, maybe he would at least want to discuss things. But other than the first night she showed up, they haven’t talked about either of their personal lives. Oliver mentioned that William’s mother is not in the picture and that’s as far as the details go.

To be fair she has not been very forthcoming either. 

“What about your other job?” Iris calls out, her voice lowering despite the fact Felicity ensured Oliver’s wifi is not state of the art encryption to the point that no one would be able to so much as put a dent in his firewall. 

“I haven’t even started yet. I couldn’t with Oliver being at home, but now that I’m on my own with William, I don’t even have time to  _ pee _ .”

“Or shower, it seems,” Iris says with another wrinkle of her nose, “but you are going to work on it right? Taking care of someone else’s kid isn’t long term, right?”

“Of course. I’m hoping once he goes down for his nap I can go to the nearest coffee shop and start working on my searches.” Felicity explains. 

“Felicity, you can’t leave the baby alone,” Iris remarks scandalized.

“Of course not, I’m gonna take him  _ with _ me. I may be baby incompetent but I’m still a  _ genius _ , Iris.” Felicity snaps back. “I just don’t want to take him there and he screams bloody murder and they call child services on me thinking I kidnapped him. Or tortured him, honestly the kid is so damn dramatic. This morning every time I took a step towards him he would cry. Then when I hid behind the couch he would start to laugh. He’s such a drama queen.”

“Oh my god, you like the kid,” Iris remarks incredulous, “he got under your skin.  _ Felicity.” _

_ “ _ Oh relax. I’m not gonna suddenly want one of my own, besides. I’m pretty sure I’ve written off men for the rest of my life.” Felicity dismisses Iris' loud protest. Between lacrosse players and  _ cheaters _ Felicity has had her fair share of men for a long, long time. Besides she’s in Starling City for only one reason and it has nothing to do with any of the Queen men. The big one  _ or  _ the little one. “I’m still on my timeline of 6 months. I’ll be back to being your annoying roommate who only sleeps during the day.”

“Good cause it was so weird to come home and not have you here,” Iris confesses. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m great. I promise. I got this under control.” The moment Felicity declares this a wet crumbly piece of cookie hits her square in the face. The baby bottle goes tumbling down to the floor with a loud slam and William bursts out into tears calling out for his father.

“Famous last words,” Felicity jokes, she can see that Iris is  _ not _ smiling but looking concerned. “Iris I gotta go, I'll talk to you later!” She doesn’t wait for her best friend to respond and quickly hits the red button on the screen ending the call.

“I can’t even talk to my friends now?” She asks the baby who continues to cry, to her surprise he raises his chubby little hands towards her begging  _ her _ to pick him up.

Not that there is anyone else to take him, but he has  _ never _ reached out for her.

“Oh! Okay.” Felicity says in surprise and quickly unbuckles him from the high chair the moment he is in her arms he stops crying. 

“Are we finally making progress, William?” Felicity asks one delight. She makes her way towards the bathroom so grateful that Oliver told her to always feed William  _ before _ bath time.

However, her moment of victory is short-lived, when they enter the bathroom, William catches sight of their reflection and, for some reason, he immediately breaks out into tears yet again. 

“Oh c’mon!” Felicity throws up her free hand in exasperation and slaps her thigh, but she pauses when she sees William looking at her reflection thoughtfully.

She braces herself for him to freak out again. But instead he raised one of his arms and lightly slaps his thigh, much like what Felicity just did.

When she gasps in surprise and he smacks her cheek with a hand, William giggles and does it again and again.

When he accidentally hits himself in the face a little too hard, all giggles have stopped and this time he cries in earnest.

“I know the feeling, kid.” Felicity quips as she rids him of his clothes while the water runs for his bath. 

William continues to cry and Felicity wonders how on earth this is now her life.

* * *

Oliver toes off his shoes as he enters the apartment, his shoulders heavy as the day’s exhaustion catches up to him. All he wants to do is snuggle with his son and sleep for a few  _ days _ . His first full day back in the office was more exhausting than he expected it to be.

He stops short as the aroma of Greek food greets him on entering the kitchen. He smiles when he sees Felicity sitting at the counter, her blonde hair is a curly mess and her glasses are falling off the tip of her nose. 

She’s practically asleep, the baby monitor by her head and her fork is full of food suspended in the air. He’s taken back to 15 years ago when he used to find her pulling all nighters for her AP classes. He used to have to hide her textbooks and practically carry her home to get her to take a break.

It makes him feel nostalgic remembering how they used to be, seems like another lifetime ago. Maybe because it is.

“Hey,” Oliver calls out softly not wanting to startle her, but she jumps anyway and almost slides right off her stool. “Sorry, everything okay? Was William okay today?”

Felicity yawns loudly as she nods her head, “he had a little trouble going down for the night, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”

She doesn’t elaborate anymore and Oliver wonders what she’s  _ not _ telling him. She only sent him pictures throughout the day if he asked and every picture of William, the baby looked happy as can be but Felicity looks exhausted.

“That’s good,” Oliver nods hoping she will offer up some more information about their day, but when she only focuses on her food. He decides to try a different tactic.

“Did you cook?” Oliver asks, unable to keep the incredulity out of his tone. “ _ Can _ you cook?”

Felicity only snorts and gestures to the garbage can a few feet away and Oliver can see the box of take out from Osmow's peeking from under the lid. “Please, things have changed, but not  _ that _ much.”

It’s the first time either of them have verbally brought up their past since she arrived and Oliver can’t help but smile at a particular memory. When he sees the soft smile tugging at the corner of Felicity’s lips he wonders if they are thinking about the same thing.

“The smoothie incident of 2005 is legendary after all,” Oliver teases lightly.

“I was actually thinking about the grilled cheese incident.” Felicity says sheepishly, her cheeks pinking up at the memory, “In my defense how was I supposed to know that the smoothie would splatter  _ that  _ much, I thought the hole in the cover was there to let the air out.”

“It wasn’t a pressure cooker, Felicity.” Oliver replies easily, an echo of their past conversation. “Still pleading the fifth with the grilled cheese?”

“Taking it to my grave,” Felicity remarks with familiarity, her dimples even more prominent as she smiles at him.

“Pretty sure my Mom’s George Foreman is still buried in the backyard of our old house,” Oliver says with a laugh, “including the little tombstone you made for it.”

“Oh, your Mom was so mad,” Felicity says with a groan burying her face in her hands.

“We were 12 and probably should not have been making extreme supreme grilled cheese sandwiches in the first place.”

They both laugh at both the name and the memory of Oliver’s  _ bedroom _ filling with smoke as Felicity had tried and failed epically to make elaborate grilled cheese sandwiches.

“Yet we never  _ learned _ from our mistakes. You always wanted to try new experiments and I was…”

“ _ You _ were just an absolute calamity in the kitchen.” Oliver supplies cheekily.

“It never stopped you from trying more and more recipes though,” Felicity points out.

“You were my sous chef,” Oliver says with a soft smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

“That I was,” Felicity replies with her own wistful smile, both of them lost in their memories.

Life was so much simpler back then, when they were kids, before Felicity moved away. Oliver can’t help but wonder if Felicity misses it as much as he does. If she’s been thinking about them and their past every day since she showed up on his doorstep.

“Oliver, about that night…”

Oliver freezes at her words, he can’t do this. Going down memory lane is one thing, but opening up old wounds is  _ not _ what Oliver wants. He can’t do this with her. He won’t.

“I’m going to check on William,” Oliver says abruptly, avoiding making eye contact with Felicity. When he hears her soft sigh he turns around to look at her, “thank you for taking care of William today.”

“It’s my job.” Felicity reminds him and this time  _ she _ avoids looking at him, but he can hear the disappointment in her tone.

Right, because she’s his employee and nothing else. 

She can’t be anything else.


	3. Chapter 3

Oliver and Felicity have a silent agreement to never bring up their past. They discuss William, they discuss current events, the weather, just about everything but the fact that they have a history together, albeit a broken history at that.

And, for the most part it works for them. They have essentially become roommates, who take care of a baby, except not together. When Oliver is at home, he’s on William duty and he’s very insistent that Felicity not help out, it doesn’t always work that way, but for the most part, Felicity is left to her own devices when Oliver is at home.

After she moved to London she imagined countless scenarios where she and Oliver would be reunited. Some ended tragically, but most were cheesy and befitting of the perfect rom-com, airport reunion kiss and all.

She blames  _ that _ particular memory on a bottle of merlot and yet another failed relationship. Although in hindsight, if she was thinking about her first boyfriend after her  _ current _ boyfriend broke up with her, that relationship was clearly doomed from the start. And you know, if Roger didn’t cheat on her as well.

Anyway, out of all the scenarios she concocted over the years she  _ never _ imagined that she would be living with Oliver Queen and playing  _ nanny _ to his infant son.

Then again nothing in her life has ever gone has she planned, not even when she was sixteen and in love with her best friend.

_ Especially _ , when she was sixteen and in love with her best friend.

* * *

_Fifteen Years Ago_

_ “Oliver.” _

_ “Keep your eyes closed!” _

_ “You know I hate surprises!” _

_ “No. You love surprises, you just hate waiting for said surprise. Which is why I won’t tell you about it until we’re 5 minutes away. Don’t peak!” _

_ “You said 5 minutes, 10 minutes ago!” _

_ “Felicity! C’mon, don’t ruin your birthday surprise. I worked hard on this.” _

_ He’s not above a guilt trip, and he knows her well enough that it works almost instantaneously. She goes quiet immediately, and stops shifting in her seat. _

_ For all of five seconds, which only makes Oliver grin widen. _

_ “You already bought me dinner, and the cutest and tastiest cupcake I’ve ever had. I don’t need anymore.” Felicity replies. He sees her hand stretching out to him and he grabs it quickly. “This was the best birthday I could ask for. I don’t need anything else, just you.” _

_ Oliver raises her hand to his lips and presses a soft kiss on her knuckles, “nice try. I’m still not gonna tell you what the surprise is.” _

_ “Oh, c’mon, Oliver! It’s been forever.” Felicity whines, but despite her protests, she still keeps her eyes closed. _

_ “I just need to put the truck in park.”  _

_ She sits up straight, her head whipping back and forth, but Oliver can see her eyes are thankfully still closed. “I need you to not move and give me five minutes to set up. Keep your eyes closed!” _

_ “Set up what? Did you drive all this way just to kill me? Are we doing a Romeo and Juliet theme for my birthday? It’s a little morbid, I gotta say.” _

_ Oliver rolls his eyes and leans over the console to kiss her on the lips, surprising her to say the least, “shut up and keep your eyes closed.” _

_ “Rude.” Felicity grumbles but he can see her wide smile regardless, her eyes still blessedly closed. _

_ After a few minutes of opening the back seat, getting his supplies and setting up the back of his truck filled with blankets, pillows, and snacks, he finally goes to the passenger door and opens it for Felicity .  _

_ To his great delight Felicity still has her eyes closed, her hands are twisted in her lap, wrinkling the skirt of her dress. She’s clearly anxious but still playing along, which surprises him to say the least. _

_ He takes her hand in his and helps her out of the truck. He gently turns her to face the back of the truck and presses his lips gently against her cheek and whispers softly, “okay, open them.” _

_ “Oliver...what…” Felicity takes in the massive drive in screen and the various other cars in the lot.  _

_ When she sees the Stormtrooper on the screen she gasps. “The Star Wars movie marathon?” _

_ Oliver grins and nods, before he could verbally respond she jumps into his arms kissing him soundly, “oh my god this is amazing. You know that this is all three movies right? We’re gonna be here till the sun rises at least.” _

_ “I know. C’mon, I have more to show you.” He takes her hand and gently tugs her to the back of his truck more excited for her to see just exactly what he did. _

_ The back of his truck is lined with endless blankets and pillows and an old mattress from Thea’s crib when she was a baby.  _

_ “Oliver!” _

_ “Hey, if we’re gonna be watching this thing all night, we might as well do it with style.” _

_ He grabs her by the waist and hoists her onto the bed of the truck, smiling at the soft giggle she releases in surprise. She crawls to the back and of the truck and sinks into the blankets and pillows with a sigh. She laughs when she sees her yoda pillow and stormtrooper blanket that he borrowed from her room.  _

_ “Oh, so there is a theme tonight,” Felicity says with delight as she hugs the pillow to her chest, “Oliver, this is amazing.” _

_ “Sorry, no murder-suicides tonight,” Oliver teases lightly. He grabs the basket to his right opening on side with a flourish Felicity’s blue eyes trained on the goodies inside of the basket, “ the Star Wars theme will have to suffice. We’ve got chocolate covered lightsaber pretzels. Stormtrooper sugar cookies. Ewok gummy bears and Tie riders s’mores.” _

_ “Oliver, where did you get all of this? This is like a Hollywood production!” Felicity is now keeling over him peering into each container. She steals a Ewok gummy bear and grins, “well I know you stole these from my bedside table.” _

_ “I actually made the rest,” Oliver explains, his cheeks now pink with embarrassment, he didn’t think much of it at the time but Felicity’s loud gasp of surprise suddenly makes him feel self conscious. “It’s not the best….” _

_ “Oliver, this is amazing, you did the little drawings too?” She prods at the stormtrooper tentatively. _

_ “Yea, took me a few tries but they look like the stormtroopers right?” _

_ He made 20 batches of these cookies till he got them right. His mother had to donate some to the orphanage because they couldn’t eat all, and she banned Oliver from making anymore. _

_ “This is so good!” Felicity replies between bites nodding her head vigorously. She takes one of the lightsabers and holds it out to Oliver, “be one with the force young padawan.” _

_ “Slow your roll, Jedi master.” Oliver teases. He leans over to grab the cooler and laughs when Felicity slides into his lap holding out one of the cookies for him. He goes to take a bite, but Felicity suddenly pops it in her mouth and grins at him impishly, “sorry.” _

_ She’s really not. _

_ “I’ll get you back when you least expect it.” Oliver taunts, he tugs the cooler to his side and pulls something out hiding it behind his back, “but I have one more thing for you.” _

_ “Oliver, I know that green container anywhere.” She moves to straddle his lap, her hands flat on his chest, “gimme my mint chip!” _

_ “It’s more than just mint chip.” Oliver teases learning forward to kiss her but he huffs when she uses his distraction to reach behind him and grab the pint of ice cream. _

_ “Does it have little chocolate chips shaped like yoda?” Felicity asks but she frowns when she examines the pint of ice cream only to see that it’s almost empty, “hey! What gives Oliver? You ate my ice cream?” _

_ “No, that was just the extra,” Oliver says with a laugh. He then pulls out two clear plastic reused Starbucks cups, both green in colour with little chocolate shaped ears on either side. “Yoda root beer floats.” _

_ “Oh my god. This is amazing. Oliver! You’re amazing!” _

_ Felicity takes both cups from him to examine them closely, she gazes around at their assortment of Star Wars theme snacks and her heart clenches. He did all of this for her.  _

_ No one has ever made her feel so special like this, she can’t believe he spent all this time and effort on her. Birthdays have always been a big deal for them ever since they became friends his always marked the beginning of their summer vacation and hers the end of the summer vacation. They would always spend it together but neither have ever gone this elaborate with the celebrations. Then again they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend till now. _

_ God, she loves him.  _

_ That’s when it hits her, she loves him, she is unequivocally, completely head over heels in love with Oliver Queen.  _

_ “Good surprise?” Oliver asks tentatively, she can’t believe he would even ask that. _

_ “The very best!” She then places both cups back in the cooler filled with ice and tackles Oliver, their lips meeting in a heated kiss.  _

_ Best. Birthday. Ever  _

* * *

Felicity walks through the apartment making a beeline for the kitchen, or more specifically following the smell of fried chicken. When she walks into the kitchen she’s not surprised to see Oliver has at least three pots on the stove top, the oven on and a few of his appliances pulled out.

While they clearly have both grown and evolved over the years it’s comforting to know that some parts of the Oliver Queen she used to know are still there.

“Are you celebrating something, or is this just a typical Queen Sunday?” Felicity asks curiously. 

She walks past William and ruffles the baby’s hair and smiles when she gets a toothy grin back in response. They have made some progress or at least when his father is around William is much more inclined to interact with her. However, the moment Oliver is out of sight the baby screams bloody murder.

Baby steps.

“Tommy and Thea are coming over. We try to have movie night with William at least once a month. You are welcome to join us.” Oliver offers, his back is to her as he stirs a pot, so she can’t see if he’s just trying to be polite or if he genuinely wants her to join them.

Not that there is any reason he wouldn’t, other than the fact they still don’t really talk, it’s not awkward per se. Well it only feels awkward for her because she loves to talk and she has toned it down a lot in the past few weeks. 

“Tommy? As in Tommy Merlyn? You’re still friends?” She can’t help but ask in surprise.

Oliver spins around and smirks at her knowingly, “He’s excited to see you again.”

“Of that I’m doubtful.” Felicity says with a disbelievable huff. She reaches for some grated cheese, and Oliver holds out his spatula to her. She pulls back and smiles apologetically, she used to do this all the time when they were kids, Oliver humoured her back then, but she suspects he wouldn’t be too keen on her eating his food like this. They aren't those two kids anymore, they can’t be.

“We actually found out a few years after...after you left that Tommy is Thea’s  _ half _ brother,” Oliver explains. 

Felicity’s jaw drops at that particular revelation, and points a finger at Oliver, “I  _ told _ you. Your Mom and Mr. Merlyn were always so chummy when your dad went on his ‘business’ trips.”

She purposely uses air quotation marks when she talks about Robert’s business trips, it was no secret that Oliver’s father was unfaithful. No one was surprised when he finally left with his secretary a year after Thea was born, least of all Oliver.

Despite her comment though, Felicity looks at him with concern, “How old was your sister when she found out? How did she handle it? How did  _ you?  _ And  _ Tommy?  _ He never did have anything good to say about his father.”

“Thea was 14 at the time, Dad was never in her life. Walter was the only father she knew, she was still shocked, and hurt of course, more angry at Mom than anything, but you know she always saw Tommy as her brother anyway. Things did not change that drastically for any of us.”

“And you?” Felicity asks with concern, she knows Oliver always struggled with coming to terms with his father’s infidelity and eventually walking away from his family, without ever looking back. She can’t begin to fathom how he would feel knowing his mother was also unfaithful.

Oliver shrugs his shoulders, his hesitation making Felicity wonder if she crossed the invisible line they set up since she accepted this job. They may have talked in length about his father’s infidelity when they were kids, but Felicity isn’t Oliver’s best friend anymore, she isn’t the person he goes to discuss these things. Oliver doesn’t owe it to her to share his life story. Not anymore.

“Thea’s nineteen now, it was such a long time ago. Had I found out at the time she was born I would have been more upset. When we did find out, I was more concerned about her and how she felt. She dealt it with much more maturity than I expected, it was probably the moment I realized my baby sister was growing up.” Oliver says with a soft smile, “It was also the moment Tommy started to call our Mom, Mom.”

“But that’s not….”

Oliver shakes his head with a laugh cutting her off, “Yea, don’t try to explain it to him. Mom loves him as her own anyway.”

“Your Mom always did like taking in strays,” Felicity says thoughtfully, remembering how welcoming Moira Queen always was to her. She frowns at the thought of the older woman who was like a second mother to her for years, she’s almost certain she doesn’t want to have anything to do with Felicity now. Not after the way Felicity left things with Oliver.

“I’m pretty sure you and Tommy were the  _ only _ ones she did that for,” Oliver says affectionately. 

He seems to catch himself though and turns his focus back to the stove, abruptly ending the conversation. Leaving Felicity to feel as if she toed over the line they set in place, yet again. “Do you need any help?”

Oliver turns to her looking slightly apprehensive and Felicity can’t help but laugh in response. She gestures to William who is currently sucking on a piece of watermelon, his entire face and bare chest covered with juice. “I was talking about Mr. messy pants over here.  _ Not _ the food, still very much a calamity in the kitchen.”

Oliver huffs a small laugh, but then nods, “If you could give him a bath that would be great.”

“That I can do,” Felicity almost salutes him, much like she used to do when they were kids and he would ask her to cut ingredients for him - the only  _ safe _ thing she was allowed to do- but she catches herself midway and scratches her forehead to hide the gesture.

What is it about Oliver Queen that makes her revert back to her teenage self without even realizing it?

She shakes her head, and puts her focus on the only Queen she should be thinking about. She smiles tentatively at William, and she can see he goes on high alert almost immediately. His little chubby hands are clutching the watermelon, juice running down his elbows as he stares at her suspiciously.

“Hey you little stinker, are you gonna let me bathe you, so that you’re all clean for Aunty Thea and Uncle Tommy?” Felicity coos as she takes a tentative step towards the baby.

William nibbles on the last piece of his watermelon, his blue eyes narrowing at her suspiciously. She glances back at Oliver, but Oliver is none the wiser, completely focused on the various pots in front of him. 

As far as Felicity can tell, Oliver has not picked up on the fact that William  _ still  _ does not like her. He clearly trusts Felicity with his son, he has noticed William can be a little standoffish with Felicity at times, but he is completely unaware of the numerous  _ battles _ Felicity has had with the baby over the past few weeks.

To her great relief, the baby seems to let her pick him up. She leaves him with the piece of fruit, knowing the distraction is her best weapon against mass destruction - aka a complete baby meltdown. She pointedly ensures Oliver is  _ not _ in his line of sight as she walks towards the bathroom. 

“Yes, we’ve got this.” She says mostly to herself. She has watermelon now dripping on her chest and down her top, but she’s so used to these endless random fluids on her person, that she’s learned to just ignore it by now.

“How’s that watermelon, Bub? Good?” She teases William as she goes about setting the water at the right temperature to fill up half the bathtub.

The baby wrinkles his nose at her question, but still keeps the pieces close to his chest.

“Can I have a piece?” She teases, she leans forward to bite the tip of the watermelon, and realizes belatedly the error in her ways. The moment she bites piece of the watermelon, William flings it from his hand and he bursts into tears, pushing at her in annoyance, frustration, disgust? Maybe all of the above.

“Shit.” Felicity hisses, she pushes the bathroom door all the way closed, hoping Oliver does not hear. “I’m sorry! I should not have taken your fruit. Although, if I’m being honest, you need to learn how to share, kid.” 

She goes about getting him ready for his bath, she continues to talk with a chipper tone, ignoring the baby’s grumbles knowing that he will eventually get over himself. Sure enough when she puts him in the small section of the bathtub, he immediately squeals with delight, grabbing one of his soft toy boats hitting the water excitedly. He offers her one of the other toys and she can't help but laugh. When she takes the toy though, William breaks out into tears again, clearly upset that she  _ took _ his toy. The kid is more moody than a teenager, one day she will get him to like her, just not today.

* * *

“Well look at what the cat dragged in,” Tommy drawls as he steps into the apartment, his eyes on Felicity.

“Tommy Merlyn, seems like you are recycling the same lines. I guess you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Felicity volleys back just as easily. 

“Felicity Kuttler, still a smart ass, I see.” Tommy grins widely in response and to her surprise walks right up to her and engulfs her in a hug, “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Really?” Felicity can’t help but mutter, but Tommy only laughs in response, which does nothing to ease her concerns, and she can see Oliver is watching them suspiciously as well. “It’s actually Smoak, now.”

“Yes, Ollie did mention the name change, who is the unlucky guy?” Tommy teases.

Oliver grunts behind them but Felicity ignores him and keeps her focus on Tommy, “No guy, my Mom’s maiden name, we decided when we moved back to the states we were gonna stick with Smoak.”

Tommy hums in acknowledgement and then lets his eyes lazily scan her body up and down, when his green eyes meet her’s he smiles lazily at her, “ _ smokin.  _ It fits.”

Oliver suddenly clears his throat and not so gently shoves Tommy to the side, Felicity barely has time to react before Oliver is ushering his sister in front of Felicity. “Felicity, you remember Thea, right?”

“Thea! Oh wow, look at you. I suddenly feel incredibly old,” Felicity jokes offering her hand to Thea.

But William, who has been sitting in his aunt’s arms the entire time, frowns at Felicity and slaps her hand away preventing Thea from shaking her hand.

“Hey Willy Wonka, that’s not nice,” Thea reprimands pulling William’s hand away, and then uses her free hand to shake Felicity’s “Sorry I don’t seem to remember you. I did see pictures though.”

“Tommy, you did not. ” Oliver groans.

“So many pictures!” Thea claps in delight and William who is still in her arms follows suit and claps equally enthusiastically and then giggles. “Your daddy went as a teddy bear for Halloween Will. And now Aunty Thea has the  _ perfect _ blackmail material.”

“Ewok,” both Oliver  _ and _ Felicity correct automatically. 

When Thea looks at them in confusion, Felicity clears her throat slightly embarrassed at now being the focus on everyone’s attention. “He was an Ewok, it was from Star Wars he was supposed to get the Hans costume to go with my Leia and Tommy’s Luke but he  _ forgot _ and got stuck being an Ewok.”

“I didn’t  _ forget _ . I just…”

“Waited till the very last minute and was stuck with either being that or Jar Jar Binks. So he chose the Ewok,” Felicity replies dryly, remembering Halloween all too well. They weren’t even together back then, but she remembers being so upset at him for ruining their perfect trio costume.

“I still say he should have gone with the golden bikini,” Tommy chimes in.

“Fuck off.” Oliver scowls shoving Tommy by the shoulder and taking his son from Thea and ushering the small group to the living room. He looks at William and smiles kissing his chubby little cheek, “uncle Tommy is an idiot.”

“I bought the costume and everything for him.” Tommy is completely unbothered that Oliver is clearly trying to change the topic and continues on like there was no interruption. 

Felicity giggles while Thea looks absolutely scandalized. “Oh I’d pay money to see that.”

“From the pictures, I’m sure you saw how  _ delighted _ your brother...uhh Oliver that is...was to be an Ewok…” Felicity trails off looking across at Oliver apologetically. “Was that supposed to be a secret? I mean I knew it was a secret...you know before you found out...that Malcolm was your dad I mean...I’m just making things more awkward aren’t I?”

“Felicity, breathe. It’s fine most people know, it’s not a big secret.” Oliver takes a step towards her and rubs her back in comfort.

He narrows his eyes at Tommy and Thea who are exchanging silent pointed looks between the two and Tommy on seeing Oliver’s expression grins at him and Oliver is on high alert already.

“Felicity, you know I still have that golden bikini if you wanna take it for a little spin,” Tommy wiggles his eyes at Felicity suggestively at which she laughs wholeheartedly, the tension easing from her shoulders. 

Oliver knows Tommy is just being Tommy and trying to lighten the mood. But then Tommy walks up to Felicity and lazily throws his arm across her shoulder and  _ winks  _ at her and this time Felicity  _ giggles _ in return and Oliver suddenly has the urge to  _ shove _ his best friend away from Felicity. 

Except he can’t exactly do that, so instead he clears his throat loudly to get everyone’s attention. To his annoyance, Tommy still has his arm across Felicity’s shoulder and more specifically  _ Felicity  _ has not moved away from Tommy. She’s not touching him per se, but she’s not exactly trying to get away either.

Why won’t she step away from him? Personal space, it still exists, at least as far as Oliver remembers.

“Ollie?” Thea calls out curiously, pulling Oliver from his thoughts and he wonders how long he has been staring at his best friend’s arm draped across his...his nanny’s shoulder.

“Who’s supposed to pick the movie tonight?” Oliver asks lamely.

He turns his focus to William who is currently sucking on his knuckles, and misses the pointed looks Thea and Tommy share yet again.

“It’s my turn tonight.” Tommy says in delight as Thea groans in protest.

Tommy takes a seat on the loveseat and to Oliver’s utter annoyance his friend pats the open space welcomingly to Felicity to join him. “Felicity, since it’s your first time. Why don’t you choose?”

“Oh! Okay? Are there any rules, because of William?” Felicity asks curiously. 

She sends William a little wave of acknowledgement, something that would typically bring a smile to Oliver’s face but he is more fixated on the fact that she not only takes up Tommy’s invitation, but also slides into the loveseat next to his friend. And if Oliver is being honest she is sitting way too close to Tommy for comfort.

Tommy looks absolutely delighted at the prospect and leans back onto the couch and throws his arm across the back and more specifically over Felicity’s shoulders. 

_ And  _ Felicity does not even move, granted she currently has the remote in her hand and browsing through the movie catalogue, but she  _ does. not. move. _

When they were teenagers Oliver tried that move  _ three _ times before he finally got Felicity to snuggle  _ into _ him and not pull away. 

_ Three times _ .

Now she’s just  _ leaning  _ against his best friend like it’s no big deal.

To be fair she’s not  _ pressed  _ against Tommy, in fact no part of their bodies are touching, other than Tommy’s arm on her shoulder. 

But  _ still _ . It’s still a big deal.

Why is he so bothered by this? It’s just  _ Tommy,  _ when they were kids Felicity barely tolerated his best friend. 

Except they aren’t kids anymore.

Felicity’s giggle pulls Oliver from his thoughts and he looks up just in time to see her grasp Tommy’s shoulder as the two share a laugh.

Without really thinking about it he walks up to the pair, pointedly ignores Tommy’s smirk as he approaches and plops William onto  _ both  _ of them the baby squeals with delight grabbing at Tommy’s beard. 

Oliver smirks, he did warn his best friend about the beard thing. Tommy looks startled but automatically holds onto the baby, and looks at Oliver questioningly and Oliver can see Felicity shift slightly away to give the baby room to sit right in the middle between Tommy and Felicity. William now wants to sit on the couch on his own, something he recently started doing, which Oliver fully knew he would do.

“I just want to check on the popcorn and get some snacks for William,” Oliver explains unapologetically, he doesn’t wait for a reply and quickly slips out of the living room, unaware of his sister watching him the entire time.

Right before he walks out of the room he turns back but scowls when he sees that William is now sitting in Tommy’s lap his little legs stretched out onto Felicity and Tommy’s free arm is _again_ draped across Felicity’s shoulders. Well that backfired on him.

What the fuck is going on?

And why the hell is he so bothered by this?

* * *

“ _ Dada! Dada! Dada!”  _

William’s screams echo throughout the apartment as Felicity paces the living room. “William, your Dad is in meetings all day he can’t come home. I know you want him. I know those little teeth of yours are being a pain your ass but you gotta cut me some slack, kid. I’m trying my best.”

As always her words do little to soothe the baby, she offers him the frozen teething ring but he only flings it away luckily missing not only her head but the television as well.

“That wasn’t very smart. It’s gonna help those little gums of yours,” she explains soothingly. She offers him a bottle but he only pushes it a way and the bottle goes tumbling to the floor spilling milk all over the rug.

Felicity closes her eyes and counts to ten. William has been screaming like this for the past hour. Felicity has tried everything from a diaper change, to a warm bath and now his teething ring and bottle but nothing is working and she is unable to comfort him.

Every time she tries to comfort the baby, William only cries louder and tries to push her away. She’s at her wits end and she just does not know what to do.

“I wish you could talk, tell me what it is you need from me,” Felicity practically pleads.

“ _ Dada! Dada!” _

“Yea besides that,” Felicity remarks dryly as she bounces the baby in her arms but William’s cries only get louder so she stops immediately.

“Okay, let’s try a new tactic,” Felicity declares. She’s getting desperate now. 

She walks towards the sofa and places William in the middle of the couch. He’s at the point where he not only sits on his own but he crawls around a lot and he really likes to crawl on the sofa. She grabs all of the throw pillows and tosses them in front of the sofa, just in case. He sits still on the couch whimpering as he watches her clearly confused. They never put him on the couch on his own, they usually sit with him to feed him a bottle or he ends up there on his own, something he clearly is aware of.

Felicity kneels on the floor in front of him, her hands resting on his sock clad feet. The baby whimpers and kicks at her clearly displeased, “look at you all by yourself on the big couch like a big boy.”

But William seems to care very little about this as he starts to cry yet again. He’s going to make himself sick if he continues and Felicity  _ hates  _ that she does not know what’s wrong with him.

She’s been taking care of him a little over two weeks now and she just doesn’t understand why he still doesn’t like her. Why can’t she figure out what he wants. 

Not knowing what he wants frustrates her more than him not liking her, if she’s being honest with herself. She is a person that prides herself in not only being the best at what she does -albeit cooking aside- but also she just hates that she can’t help him. Each time he cries it’s always trial and error to figure out what he wants and the longer she takes the more upset William gets, it’s a bitter cycle and she just thought she would figure it out by now. 

She watches Oliver with William and how he seems to be able to just know what the baby wants even before the baby cries for it. And yes, he has the advantage of you know being William’s father and there from the very beginning, but it’s been three weeks she should know these things by now. 

When she first took this job she expected it to be easy, simple and it would allow her to complete what she came to Starling for without any hiccups, but it’s been two weeks she has yet to look at her laptop much less start her mission. At this point she likes the kid, she wants to help him and she  _ hates _ that she can’t figure out what's wrong with him, and she hates that it's not something she can learn in a book. She’s going in blind and it frustrates her beyond belief.

She just wants to help William. 

William continues bawling, big tears rolling down his chubby cheeks as he cries out for Oliver.

“I wish I knew how to help you.” Felicity places her hands on the couch staring back at William, almost close to tears herself, “Why won't you let me help you? I just want to help you William.”

She rubs his legs hoping to comfort him but William only kicks at her as he continues to cry, his cries getting louder by the minute. 

“William, I’m not the bad guy here,” Felicity pleads and this time she is close to tears as she speaks. “What am I doing wrong?”

By the time she’s done she’s crying too, William whimpers and now they are both crying earnestly, “I’m a good person! I just want to help you!”

She buries her face into the couch cushion, crying out in frustration. She feels a pat on her head and sighs, no doubt William is probably pushing her away from being too close to her. But then she feels another pat on her hand and that’s when she realizes  _ she _ is the only one that’s crying. She looks up just in time to see William’s face hovering next to her, and he’s frowning at her, she braces herself waiting for yet another shove from his pudgy little hand, but he leans forward, his mouth open and he presses a wet kiss on her face.

“Oh.” She squeaks out in surprise, and William takes that as encouragement and uses both his hands to pat her head. It’s different that all the times he’s hit her, this time he is gentle with his uncoordinated movements and he then puts his head on hers in comfort.

William is comforting her.

This time when she cries happy tears, she crawls onto the couch and to her utter delight and surprise, William crawls into her lap and snuggles up against her, his hand resting on hers.

Now she’s the one that can’t stop crying, but all she can think is, she did it.


	4. Chapter 4

“That’s it buddy! You can do it!” Oliver cheers encouragingly. 

William is standing as he holds onto the coffee table, his chubby little legs bouncing in time with the music that is playing through the speakers in the living room. Oliver hopes that he’s about to take his first steps, at just a few days shy of his first birthday it could be a little soon for him to walk, but Oliver really hopes he’s ready and more importantly that Oliver will be there to see it.

For the past week William has been pulling himself up into a standing position hovering on his own before he falls back onto the ground and crawls away to wherever his little legs will take him. 

He would walk all over the house in his walker, crashing into furniture and Oliver and Felicity’s ankles alike. He even walks if they hold his hands, but he’s yet to take that step on his own and Oliver just has this feeling it’s going to be today. Or really he is hopeful it’s today. He missed William’s first crawl but he refuses to miss this too.

Felicity warns him constantly that he can’t force it on William and she promises to always have her phone ready, in case it happens when he’s not there. 

They work well together, he and Felicity, not that he’s surprised, they were friends long before they had gotten together when they were kids and it seems like they have been able to fall back into that friendship with familiar ease.

Granted it’s definitely not the same as the handfuls of times they babysat Thea when she was a baby, but they do seem to have a great system going. It's been a little over four months since Felicity started babysitting and William seems to finally warm up to her. Oliver would never admit it but he was worried that his son would never like Felicity, and the thought worried him more than it should.

Felicity is great with William now and it’s just been great to have someone with him to look after his son. In his wildest dreams he never imagined a life like this with Felicity Smoak of all people, but it works for them so he can’t complain. He is still surprised that this is what she wanted to do with her life, she mentioned briefly she was thinking of starting her own company but she never went into details of it, William had an exploding diaper situation and like most of their conversations that one came to a sudden halt.

“Hey Will, look what I have!” Felicity calls out enticingly. She’s holding a freshly cut apple in her hand and waves it at William purposely stopping a few feet away from the baby. “Do you want an apple?”

William babbles out to her, one hand outstretched as he closes and opens his palm his sign that he wants the food.

“Come for it, Will.” Felicity cajoled holding out the apple to the baby before handing it to Oliver.

At Oliver's confused look Felicity holds out her phone, “let him walk to you.”

Oliver’s heart clenches at her words, she knows how much he’d been beating up himself for missing William crawling for the first time. 

“Hey buddy, come to daddy,” Oliver calls out, offering the piece of apple for William. They both know food is the way to William’s heart. The kid isn’t even a year yet and he  _ loves _ food,  _ any _ food. 

“Dada!” William calls life eagerly, he moves along the length of the coffee table to get closer to Oliver, but when he sees that he’s reached the end of the line he frowns in displeasure. 

“C’mon walk to Daddy,”

William wrinkles his nose in displeasure, he looks at Felicity then back to Oliver in confusion, clearly not pleased that neither of them are going to him or giving him the apple he wants. 

Oliver holds a breath, waiting to see what he does and when William releases his hold on the coffee table, Oliver inches a little bit closer and holds out both his hands to his son. “C’mon buddy you can do it!”

William catches sight of the apple piece and takes an unsteady step towards Oliver. He takes two more before he goes tumbling into Oliver’s arms, Felicity cheering in the background.

“That’s it Will! You did it!” Oliver cheers excitedly, pressing a kiss on William’s forehead.

William has his eyes focused on the apple piece in Oliver’s hand and once he grabs it, he pops back onto his diaper clad bottom already chewing on the apple.

“I guess he had more important things to worry about,” Felicity quips with a short laugh. Oliver can see her eyes are red and he’s glad that he’s not the only one emotional. 

“He did it. He’s  _ walking _ ,” Oliver breathes out in awe. 

“Yea,” Felicity says equally choked up. 

She sends him a wide proud watery smile, that Oliver knows is matching his own. It’s so nice to have someone to experience these milestones with, he never really realized how much he missed that, until this moment. Sure, when William said his first word and Thea was with him it was great to celebrate with her, but it’s different with Felicity, he doesn’t know how to explain it, but it just is.

William sends Felicity a toothy smile, apple juice running down his chin and hand. “You did it Will!”

She claps excitedly in enthusiasm and they both laugh when William follows suit, squishing the apple piece in his hand, babbling loudly in response and offering her the mashed fruit.

“Aw thank you sweet boy,” Felicity coos, she leans forward and lets William feed her the last bit of apple pieces, despite the fact that most of it ends up on her face and William cheers excitedly.

He places his dirty hands on her knees and climbs onto her and gives her a wet kiss on the lips. Oliver loves watching them interact, it took time, boy did it, but William has warmed up to Felicity, and his clear affection for Felicity is also mutual.

“He’s above average in walking, not even a year yet. High five William!” 

Felicity obviously went into this blindly, Oliver knows that, but he loves that she spent the last few months reading endless books and following countless social media accounts doing research on babies. Almost every day she has something new to tell him about babies and what William should and should not be doing, but she always leaves things to him to decide.

William babbles excitedly and slaps his dirty hands against Felicity’s. 

“We’re gonna have to baby proof everything,” Felicity points looking nervously at William who has now crawled away from her and making his way to some of his toys.

“We’ve got most of the apartment covered, but I’ll make the rounds again just to make sure,” Oliver promises. He may have gone overboard with baby proofing when William learned to crawl. 

“Soon he’s gonna be running around all over the place,” Felicity remarks thoughtfully. 

Oliver can’t even imagine that, to him it feels like only yesterday he brought William home from the hospital. Tiny as can be, barely fitting in the smallest newborn diapers Oliver could find. “He’s gonna be one in a few weeks, that’s crazy.”

“Feels like it’s just flying by?” Felicity asks thoughtfully, with a soft smile.

“You have no idea. He'll be a toddler soon, talking and everything.” Oliver remarks, “I can’t wait to have a conversation with him.”

“Yea..although sometimes it feels like we already do. I’ve certainly had many arguments with him.” Felicity says with a laugh. “You’ll take lots of pictures at his party for me, right?”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Oliver asks, startled looking at her in confusion.

Felicity shrugs her shoulders sheepishly, her eyes drifting to William ever so often, and she pointedly does not look at Oliver. “It’s his first birthday, it’s a family day. I don’t want to impose, or assume. I’m just the nanny.”

“Felicity, don’t be ridiculous. Of course you are invited. William would want you there. You’re important to him,” Oliver insists. 

He wants to say she’s practically family, she  _ is _ family but it’s way too soon to be making those kinds of declarations, the thought scares  _ him  _ when it crosses his mind, he can’t imagine how she would feel.

“Are you sure?” She asks, still uncertain, but the fact that she doesn’t protest shows how much she wants to be there and he still can’t believe she thought she was not welcomed.

“Of course. We’re going together. Gotta bring the birthday boy in with style.” Oliver teases trying to lighten the mood. When she smiles he gives himself a mental pat on the back. “Mom will be glad to see you, she said she’s sorry she’s been so busy these past few months with Walter.”

For the past few months his mother has been flying back and forth to London with Walter to visit his sick sister. She has barely seen William beyond FaceTime calls much less get to really talk to Felicity, Oliver is still unsure how his mother feels about Felicity, because every time he brings her up his mother changes the topic. 

“Of that, I’m doubtful,” Felicity remarks skeptically. “The last time I saw your mother was 15 years ago and things didn’t really end on good terms with us.”

_ That _ is an understatement, in fact it ended more abruptly than anything else 

All this time and they still haven’t discussed what happened between the two of them, Oliver isn’t sure if there is even a point to discuss it. It happened so long ago why bring it up, not that it matters. But then the fact that it’s still clearly on both their minds and neither of them can bring it up probably speaks for itself on why they should discuss it.

“My mom loved you like a second daughter. Hell she always said you were her first daughter. She will be happy to see you,” Oliver insists. Yet, despite all of that his mother still has not indicated that she even wants to see Felicity, but he can’t tell Felicity that. 

Felicity seems unconvinced, but wrinkles her nose when she whiffs the air. Oliver follows suit and they both look across at William who is currently crouched in the corner with a concentrated look on his face, and they both know  _ he _ is the source of that foul almost inhuman smell.

“Oh that’s nasty,” Oliver hisses almost ready to hold his breath, he looks across at Felicity to see she’s rising to her feet and holding her breath.

“I think it’s safe to say that we can pull  _ yams _ off the list. He was not much of a fan of it and clearly we are about to suffer too.” She remarks. She does not go to William however, giving them baby space to finish and waiting for him to call out to one of them. 

“Is it possible to pass out from the smell?” Felicity asks from the other side of the room.

Despite all the progress she’s made over the months,  _ this _ is one aspect of being a nanny Felicity still has trouble with and it still makes Oliver laugh. Even William ends up in a fit of giggles at the lengths Felicity goes to try and avoid the smell.

“I will sort him out. Can you put his bottle on for me?” Oliver asks scooping up his smelly son, and he has to admit this one is worse than normal.

“Already done, and just cooling it should be good by now,” Felicity replies, making her way in the opposite direction.

He and Felicity always seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to taking care of William together. So much so sometimes they anticipate the others move before they do it and it’s been so great to have someone do this with.

Oliver knows that she’s only William’s nanny; she's hardly his partner in this but part of him refuses to acknowledge the logical part of his brain.

* * *

_ Ten year old Oliver sits in the back of class, his game boy in hand under his desk as he tries his hardest to beat the third gym leader in his Pokemon Yellow game. When the screen fades to black, Oliver groans in displeasure at losing yet again. _

_ “Oliver?” _

_ Oliver jumps at the sound of his name, he opens his legs, drops his gameboy into the open backpack and then kicks the bag to the other side of the table, before he turns his head to face his teacher. The fake smile on his face falters when he sees a little girl with unruly curly brown and big thick glasses standing next to his teacher. _

_ “I’m still working on the math problem, Ms. Bailey.” Oliver says quickly. _

_ “You were playing your gameboy,” the curly hair girl says matter of factly. _

_ “No I wasn't!” Oliver insists glaring at her. _

_ “Yea you were. We saw you drop it into your bag.” She pushes her glasses further up her nose and rolls her eyes, “We can see under your table.” _

_ In that moment Oliver decided that this girl with no name is his arch nemesis. _

_ “No video games during class, you know this,” Ms Bailey gives him a pointed look. She then places her hand on the little girl's shoulder, a bad feeling settles into Oliver’s stomach, and he has the urge to grab his school bag and place it on the empty seat next to him. “This is Felicity and she is going to be your buddy for the year. _

_ “But she’s a girl,” Oliver remarks in outrage. _

_ “You’re not very smart, are you?” Felicity tuts at him, less than impressed. She takes her ridiculously large school bag and shoves it under the desk and takes a seat next to Oliver much to his horror. _

_ “But Ms. Bailey, this is Tommy’s seat,” Oliver protests, refusing to look at Felicity. Tommy was out sick the past week with the chickenpox but Oliver was saving his seat for his friend. He told Ms. Bailey that last week. _

_ “Tommy will sit next to Dylan this semester, I want the two of you working with other people.” _

_ Dylan plays baseball with Tommy and Oliver over the summer, they are good friends. Why does Tommy get to be partners with one of their friends and Oliver gets his arch nemesis? _

_ “Ms. Bailey says I have to help you with your science project,” Felicity replies smartly. _

_ “Tommy is my science partner, Ms. Bailey!” Oliver whines, trying not to shake his shoulders, his mother always told him he was not a tree and he should not shake like that to make his point. _

_ “Oliver, you know that your science partner is your seatmate.” _

_ “That’s why this is Tommy’s seat,” Oliver grumbles. _

_ “Oliver, that’s not very nice or welcoming. In fact how about you show Felicity around school for the rest of the week?” Ms. Bailey smiles at Oliver and does not wait for him to respond before she walks towards the front of the class getting everyone settled. _

_ “Thank you for showing me around school. I know you didn’t give me a tour yet, but I wanna thank you in advance. I hate going to new schools, I always get lost so easily, and this school is so much bigger than my last school. So thank you.” Felicity babbles energetically next to Oliver and Oliver wonders if she always talks like this. _

_ “You talk a lot.” Oliver says and he realizes belatedly that he might have been a little rude. _

_ Felicity goes quiet, and grabs her book from her bag.  _

_ Oliver feels slightly guilty now, but not enough to say anything and he’s also not mad that she’s stopped talking to him. He turns his textbook right side up and wrinkles his nose in displeasure at the solar system. _

_ This is so boring. _

_ “I love the solar system,” Felicity says happily, but Oliver pointedly ignores hers. _

_ He had hoped she would stay quiet, when she sighs loudly, Oliver frowns unable to help himself form looking at her. _

_ “I was thinking we could do a replica of the solar system for our project. My daddy has a digital projector with the stars. I can fix it to look like the milky way.” _

_ “That project isn’t due till the end of the term,” Oliver grumbles, that’s months away! _

_ “Yes but we are gonna have midterms and finals to study for its best to do a little bit each time,” Felicity says as a matter of fact. _

_ Oliver groans, he and Tommy were gonna just ask their parents to buy the plastic replicas from the toy store and glue them on a box. _

_ “If you’re not gonna help me with the project then tell me now, so that I can tell Ms. Bailey. I’m not doing the work for you.” _

_ What a nark!  _

_ “I didn't say I wouldn't help! We can talk about it over lunch when I show you around school.” Oliver grumbles back. He picks up his pencil and focuses on his math homework for the next class. _

_ “That’s all I asked.” Felicity replies primly as she opens up her science book. _

_ It’s official. Felicity is his arch nemesis. _

* * *

  
  


“Now William, remember you’ve gotta be on your best behaviour. Your aunty Thea and grandma Moira have been planning this for weeks. We don’t want to be a mister cranky pants,” Felicity cajoles from next to William’s car seat trying to soothe the whimpering baby. 

But he’s having none of it and twists and turns trying to get out of the car seat. 

“Mom said she was not going to go overboard,” Oliver says with a sigh as he drives under the balloon arch way that spells out ‘happy birthday William.’ 

“Glad to see Moira Queen is still Moira Queen,” Felicity quips, her eyes widening as she takes in the Queen mansion. No matter how many times she’s been to Oliver’s house as a kid she doesn’t think she would ever get used to the sheer size of his parent’s home. “Somehow it seems even bigger and more intimidating than when we were kids.”

“Mom will be happy to see you,” Oliver promises.

Of that she is doubtful, he claims his mother wants to see her, but it’s been 5 months since she started watching William and she has yet to see Moira. Moira has been back and forth between Starling and London but she always makes time to see William. She just so happens to show up when Felicity is off the clock and  _ not _ in the apartment.

It’s the main reason why Felicity doesn’t want to come today. But she knows an even larger part of her wanted to celebrate William’s first birthday, she admits the little dude has dug his way into her heart. 

Looking at the looming  _ towers _ that make up the Queen mansion, anxiety unfurls in Felicity’s stomach and is making her regret her decisions. 

“Alright birthday boy! Let’s go see what your Grandma and Aunty Thea have in store for you,” Oliver says in mock cheerfulness that has Felicity giggling.

“It’s a one year old party, how much could they possibly do?” Felicity quips as she unbuckles William from his car seat.

“The better question is what can they  _ not _ do,” Oliver remarks with dread. “Thanks Jerry.”

He nods at the valet as he hands over the keys before picking up William’s gifts and baby bag looking at Felicity expectantly, “ready?”

She definitely is _ not _ , but William bounces in her arms and he is clearly excited even if he is not really aware of what’s going on. “Someone is.”

“Do you wanna walk buddy?” Oliver asks, reaching for William, but William only buries his head in Felicity’s shoulders.

He only recently started to choose Felicity over Oliver for his source of comfort, in some instances and it's both hilarious and disconcerting for Felicity. On one hand Oliver’s shocked expression always makes her giggle and even William seems to get his father’s mock displeasure and laughs as well. On the other hand she never expected him to get attached to her like this.  _ She _ never expected to get attached to the baby either.

“There is my favourite boy!” Moira Queen greets them making a beeline for William and before Felicity can react she takes her grandson peppering him with kisses. She walks away with not so much as a glance to Felicity. 

Okay, not exactly what she was expecting. She looks across at Oliver who is glancing around at the overly decorated garden.

“Mom, don’t smother him,” Oliver calls out warmly. His hand is on the small of Felicity’s back as he ushers her towards the pair. “You remember Felicity Smoak, right?”

Felicity smiles warmly at the older woman about to offer hand to her when she notices that Moira purposely does not move her hand from William’s leg despite the fact he does not need that support. “Oh Felicity! I barely did not recognize you without the brown hair and those big thick glasses you loved. You’ve grown a lot, look just like your mother in fact.”

To anyone else it would sound like a compliment, but Felicity knows how much her mother and Moira did  _ not _ get along.

“Thank you. It’s nice seeing you too,” Felicity offers pleasantly enough. 

Moira nods, and when William stretches out his arms and Moira smiles wildly at the baby, “Let’s go see all the animals in the petting zoo.”

“ _ Petting zoo _ ?! Mom, you agreed to not go overboard!” Oliver calls out in exasperation, but Moira only waves off Oliver as she walks away with a babbling William. “She got him a  _ petting _ zoo!”

“William loves animals,” Felicity offers with a shrug of her shoulders. 

A petting zoo  _ is _ a bit excessive but she wouldn’t expect anything less from Moira Queen. 

“Yea, not like I would have been able to stop her anyway,” Oliver says mildly exasperated but Felicity can see the smile tugging on the corner of his lips. His eyes are trained on William a few yards away as he watches an alpaca apprehensively. 

A freaking  _ alpaca _ . 

“C’mon we can't miss this,” Oliver says enthusiastically grabbing her hand and tugging her along the grounds towards the closed off area for the animals.

As they approached the area they realized just how much they underestimated how big this petting zoo really was. “Maybe next year we can do something a little bit more low key for him.”

Felicity falters at his words, Oliver seemingly unaware that he is implying she will still be here next year, that they will be doing this  _ together _ .

She can’t even be upset, because she is also guilty of planning things months in advance for William especially as the summer approaches. 

Things are going well with Oliver and William, too well. She moved to Starling City for a reason, and yet her heavy duty laptop is still locked away in her suitcase, still yet to see the light of day. 

“Hey Will, are you saying hello to Mr. Alpaca?” Felicity greets the baby warmly. Today is William’s birthday, she will worry about what she should or should not be doing another time. 

William babbles at her, his little arms stretching out to her. 

Felicity goes to take him, William already leaning towards her, but Moira turns her back and walks away from Felicity heading to the puppies that are a few feet away. Felicity stops short at the clear dismissal, she looks across at Oliver to see if noticed, but Oliver is currently in a staring match with the alpaca. William, however,  _ does _ notice and looks back at Felicity with a frown. But then Moira pulls his attention away and the toddler is none the wiser 

Felicity bites her lip holding back a smile as Oliver leans over closer to the alpaca, the alpaca follows suit and leans towards him. She quickly pulls out her phone and snaps a few shots of them, Oliver so focused on the animal in front of him he’s completely unaware of what she’s doing.

“Hey,” Oliver greets to the alpaca.

The alpaca makes a soft humming sound and then bops its nose against Oliver. Oliver flies back startled and the alpaca goes running away. This time Felicity burst out into laughter the zoo keeper who is a few feet away with a rabbit in her hand is also laughing at his expense.

“ _ Hey _ ?” Felicity echos between giggles, “were you expecting him to say it back?”

“It was staring at me,” Oliver grumbles as he stands straight, and tugs at the lapels of his bomber jacket.

“So you decided to stare back at it and see if it would break first?” Felicity teases. She loops her arm through Oliver’s and tugs him towards the puppies that William and a few of his little friends are currently playing with, “C’mon I’m sure no one notice you getting outsmarted by an alpaca.” 

Felicity giggles over Oliver’s grumbles as they make their way over to William, neither of them noticing Moira watching them through narrowed eyes a few feet away. 

“Dada!” William calls out excitedly to Oliver on seeing them. He holds onto Thea’s hand and pulls himself up and quickly toddles over to Oliver collapsing against Oliver’s legs.

Three weeks since he took his first steps and William seems insistent on going from crawling to  _ running _ . Felicity is absolutely amazed at his progress. Sure with every few steps he topples over but he quickly picks himself up and goes again.

“Dada! Ah! Ee!” William babbles loudly in excitement tugging on Oliver’s hand. He sees Felicity and bounces on his chubby little legs one hand stretched out to her. He continues to babble incoherently showing them a Siberian Husky puppy who has followed William.

William on seeing the puppy squeals and complete forgets about Oliver and Felicity toddling over time the puppy. The puppy jumps on him and they both go tumbling into the grass, small barks and fits of baby giggles.

“Okay, that’s cute. I’ve known this kid for a year and today is the first time I’ve thought of wanting one,” Tommy quips, but then William sneezes and some snot now runs down his nose. “ _ And _ the moment has passed, thanks kid.”

Felicity rolls her eyes and quickly leans forward to wipe William’s nose. He sends her a toothy smile and then shows her the puppy. “I see you made a new friend.”

William babbles back in response and then goes to pat the puppy’s head, the puppy barks back at the toddlers rough petting. 

“Oh no, remember we have to be gentle,” Oliver cajoles as he takes a seat on the grass next to his son. He takes the puppy in his lap and gently scratches the puppy’s head. 

_ Damn _ , Tommy clearly isn’t the only one affected by this ridiculously cute display. Felicity’s heart flutters and a small part of her knows that a  _ puppy  _ isn’t the only thing she imagines wanting. 

William is leaning over Oliver’s lap to reach the puppy and he slowly follows suit. When he gets it he looks at Felicity for reassurance.

“That’s it you got it Will!” Felicity cheers and William on recognizing the praise claps his hand. That gets the puppy excited and he starts to bounce and bark excitedly jumping right out of Oliver’s lap.

The puppy takes off and William is hot on his heels. William eventually gives up on walking and gets on his hands and knees and crawls after the puppy. The puppy on seeing him barks excitedly and tries to jump on William’s back.

“Oh my,” Felicity says with a giggle, already snapping a few pictures. She can see a woman a few feet away with a camera, no doubt taking professional shots for the day. This only encourages her to take more pictures as she’s sure Moira won't be sending those to  _ her. _

Felicity focuses back on William and the puppy, shaking away that feeling of Moira being less than fond of her.

“Now I want to get a puppy,” Oliver mutters sheepishly next to her.

“Waldo is actually up for adoption,” an unfamiliar voice calls out next to them. “We try to encourage couples with kids to adopt the younger dogs, it's easier for everyone.”

“Oh they aren’t together. Felicity is just the nanny,” Moira chimes in with a smile that Felicity can see right through. She completely ignores Felicity and looks at Oliver sternly, “You’re not paying Felicity to take care of William  _ and  _ a new puppy Oliver. Be reasonable.”

With those words, she walks towards William not bothering to wait for Oliver to respond. When she’s out of earshot, Felicity waits for Oliver to reassure her, to say  _ something _ to the contrary, that she’s more than just the nanny, but Oliver stays silent.

It is not the first time in the past few months that someone assumed they were a family, that Felicity was William’s mother. They usually laugh it off and not bother correcting them. But today Felicity is reminded that no matter how she’s felt differently the past few months, that there’s more to her relationship with the Queen men, there isn’t. She is  _ just _ the nanny. 

The truth stings.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has read, comments, kudos and sent me messages on twitter about this fic. I'm so glad so many of you are enjoying this little fic
> 
> Please note that the ratings on this fic has gone up

“Wow!” William gasps out in surprise from Felicity’s arms. He looks at her, his eyes wide and full of wonder, “Wow!”

“That’s the ocean, Will!” Felicity says with a grin, her blond hair blowing in the wind.

Oliver moves to the trunk of the car to pull out their bags and beach supplies, a small smile on his face as William’s babbles and giggles carry with the wind.

It’s Wednesday morning and Oliver decided to play hooky for the first time since Felicity started taking care of William. Starling has also been having a warmer than normal spring and Felicity mentioned the beach they use to go to when they were kids. Oliver pointed out that William had never been to the beach before and one thing led to another and suddenly they were packing William in Oliver’s car and taking the three hour drive to the nearest beach. 

“Dada! Wow!” William greets him eagerly as he walks towards the pair. William points at the ocean, his little feet are kicking eagerly and Oliver knows that soon he’s going to want to run free.

“I forgot how great this place is,” Felicity says with a wistful smile. She looks out at the ocean and takes a deep breath, Oliver smiles when William follows suit and takes a deep breath as well. William’s blue eyes are trained on Felicity and one chubby hand curled around the strap off her dress, it’s been a little over 6 months since Felicity arrived and his son is attached to Felicity almost as much as Oliver is, something he is still afraid to admit to himself.

It’s gotten to the point where William sometimes seeks out  _ Felicity _ to comfort him, instead of Oliver. And yes, the first few times it happened Oliver was slightly put off, mostly because it was weird that his son didn’t need him as much anymore, but now it’s just great to have someone else by his side and at this point Felicity is very much his partner in this. The thought alone is both terrifying and welcoming. Welcoming because despite what Oliver has told his mother multiple times, he  _ does _ need a partner to do this, while he knows he can do it himself he has enjoyed having someone at his side. 

It’s terrifying that  _ Felicity  _ is that person. The girl who left him. The girl who he hates to admit, he still cares for.

When he was sixteen he told himself if he ever saw her he would never speak to her again. Granted he was sixteen nursing a broken heart, but he never imagined  _ this _ is how they would end up in each other’s lives again.

“Oliver, do you have everything?” Felicity calls out pulling him from his thoughts. William is waving at him, also trying to get his attention.

Oliver grins his arms filled with their things, Felicity is holding William along with two fold up chairs. “I think the only thing we left home might be the kitchen sink.” 

“It’s certainly different than when we used to grab our suits, maybe a towel and pick up some Big Belly Burger on the drive here.” Felicity laughs as they slowly make their way through a grass pathway towards the beach, William surprisingly content to stay in her arms rather than walk for himself. 

“Life was so much simpler then,”Oliver quips.

After all this time he certainly did not expect them to reach here. 

“Yea,” Felicity remarks softly, when their eyes meet Oliver knows they are both thinking the same thing. Felicity takes a step towards him, her face filled with uncertainty, “Oliver...I…”

“Tee!” William slaps Felicity on the shoulder eagerly bouncing in her arms, the moment lost. “Tee!”

He has been saying that a lot lately and they can’t seem to figure out what he’s trying to say. He repeats the word and tugs on the strap of Felicity’s dress then points towards the beach. “Tee! Wow!”

That’s when it hits Oliver, William is calling Felicity, “Oh!”

“What?” Felicity asks, turning her head to look at him despite William trying to physically push her head to look at the ocean.

“Hey buddy?” Oliver calls out, it's only then he realizes how close he and Felicity are standing next to each other when he doesn’t even need to stretch his hand to touch his son’s back. Once he has the toddler’s attention he points at Felicity. “Who is this?”

“Tee!” William babbles happily, he even leans forward and presses a wet open mouth kiss on Felicity’s cheek. “Tee!”

“Oh my!” Felicity says with a gasp, her eyes shining, “that’s what he’s been trying to say!”

“He’s talking to you!” Oliver grins equally emotional, “I knew it was not pointless babbles. High five buddy!”

William squeals and gives Oliver a high five, then points at the beach eagerly. “Dada!”

“Yes William, let's go to the beach,” Oliver says with a laugh, he picks back up the cooler and walks alongside Felicity. 

Once they reach the sand, William immediately quiets and looks down at the foreign ground with apprehensiveness.

“Did we fail him by never bringing him to a playground with a sandbox?” Felicity quips slightly amused at the way William clings to her, his little legs wrapping even tighter around her waist. “It’s just sand buddy.”

“Nope, those sandboxes are pure filth. Who knows what wild animal crapped in there,” Oliver grumbles. Felicity giggles but does not disagree with him. 

Oliver goes about setting up their little area, his eyes drifting to Felicity and William every so often. William is still clutching onto Felicity even as she crouches in the sand, refusing to put his feet down, despite the fact that he’s still wearing his sandals.

“It’s just sand buddy.” Felicity promises. She tucks her sunglasses over her head and laughs when William takes it off her head and tries to slam it in his own face. She fixes it for him and then grins at the toddler, “looking sharp Will.”

William babbles back at her smiling widely in return but like clockwork he gets tired of the sunglasses and tugs them off his face, the sunglasses going tumbling into the sand. It’s a miracle they were able to get him to keep the cap on his head. Usually he would gasp in surprise knowing they don’t like to encourage throwing, but this time he seems more curious about the sand the sunglasses have landed on and he leans forward to peer down at it, never once releasing his hold on Felicity. 

“Tee!”

“Yea it fell, do you wanna go for it?” Felicity asks, but William shakes his head in the negative.

“It’s only sand, look.” She takes a handful of sand and presents it to William who peers at it curiously, he takes his chubby little finger and pokes at the sand apprehensively. 

He babbles excitedly as he takes a fist full and opens and closes his hand watching as the sand seeps through his fingers. He then holds out his hand for more, clearly not ready to investigate the sand further. Felicity’s cheeks are already red from the sun and Oliver is already pulling out his extra hat that he packed for her knowing she would have been too focused on getting William ready for the beach. 

Olive makes his way towards them and gently places the hat on her head, surprising her to say the least. She looks up at him, her expression unreadable and Oliver wonders yet again what’s going through her mind. What was she going to say before William interrupted her, but he is too afraid to ask. “You burn easily?”

He phrases it like a question, although he’s pretty sure that hasn’t changed about her. Her unreadable expression makes him regret placing the hat on her head and assuming as such.

But then a soft smile tugs at the corner of her mouth and she offers him a grateful look, “thank you. I forgot to pack mine.”

“You usually do,” Oliver teases lightly, slipping back into that old familiar banter. Something they both have been guilty of doing lately.

Felicity smiles but then turns her focus back to William. Maybe he’s been reading into things all along. “Alright buddy let’s get those chubby little feet into the sand.”

She tosses her flip flops to the side and sinks her toes into the sand sighing with content. She pulls at the Velcro of William’s sandals and tosses them onto the beach mat. 

Oliver goes about pulling off his shirt and tossing his own things on the beach mat. He looks up expecting to see William rolling around in the sand, but he is surprised to see Felicity staring at him with an open mouth. Oliver smirks and looks at her innocently, “I thought we were taking him in the water?”

“I...abs...I mean I wanted to see you... _ him _ ... if he wanted...um... to walk on the sand.” Felicity stumbles over her words and quickly looks away.

Oliver’s smirk widens at her stutter, despite living in such close quarters they have been pretty good at respecting boundaries. That said he is not that scrawny 16 year old Felicity remembers and Oliver has to stop himself from puffing out his chest proudly. 

Instead he grabs his shirt and folds it neatly to the side but jumps when a familiar purple beach dress lands in front of him.  _ Felicity’s  _ familiar purple dress.

Oliver looks up and is greeted with endless creamy white skin. Oliver chokes on his own breath, when he finally meets Felicity’s eyes she’s smirking back at him knowingly.

_ Never _ underestimate Felicity Smoak. 

She is standing in a simple navy blue bikini, she is also  _ not  _ the gangly 16 year Oliver remembers either. William is on her hip waving eagerly at Oliver completely unaware of the current battle of wills transpiring between the two adults.

“Are we going in the water?” It’s a challenge if Oliver has ever heard one.

Before he can respond though, William calls out to Felicity tapping her shoulder and pointing to the ocean eagerly. “Tee!”

Felicity’s demeanour immediately changes and she coos at the toddler, “Yea we’re gonna go in the water, but your daddy is being silly and dragging his feet.”

William babbles back animatedly in response and then they both turn to Oliver with matching wide grins. 

_ That _ is the moment Oliver realizes he is screwed.

* * *

“Oh no. No.  _ No _ . Shit!”

“Tee! Boom!”

“William,  _ no _ you’re gonna sell me out,” Felicity hisses out which only encourages the toddler to get louder.

“I’m pretty sure the  _ smoke _ sold you out,” an amused voice calls out from the entrance of the kitchen. 

Oliver is standing with his arms crossed looking at the pair highly amused. His grey sweatpants are hanging lower in his waist, t-shirt rumpled and he looks delectably delicious, which is so  _ not _ the point Felicity is trying to make. 

The  _ point  _ is he’s fresh out of bed, which is not where he is supposed to be.

“No! Get back in bed!” Felicity protests.

Oliver stops short at her words, his arms falling to his side as he gapes at her. It’s only then does her words finally catch up to her.

“No! I’m not ordering you to bed...I just need you in bed...I want you….oh my god. Stop talking Felicity,” Felicity babbles. She slaps her hand to her forehead refusing to look at Oliver. 

Why is she this way?

“ _ William  _ and I wanted to bring you breakfast in bed for your birthday,” Felicity speaks calmly, enunciating each word ignoring the fact that her voice goes up an octave as she speaks. She refuses to acknowledge that breakfast in bed is hardly  _ platonic or  _ conducive to the employee/boss relationship they should have. 

But she’s seen Oliver shirtless so that’s all moot. At least that’s what she tells herself.

She looks at the smoking toaster and runny eggs on the stove with forlorn, “There were a few hiccups.”

She finally looks across at Oliver to see that he’s smiling at her fondly, when he  _ still _ doesn’t speak, she continues on with a vengeance. “I’ll replace the toaster.”

Oliver walks into the kitchen and peers into the frying pan, “we might have to replace this too, how do you burn eggs and still have them be runny?”

He’s smiling now despite the fact that his usually immaculate kitchen is complete ransacked. “Why don’t I whip something up for the three of us and you take…”

“No!” Felicity all but yells startling Oliver to say the least, William who was silently munching on some Cheerios stops to stare back at them and starts chanting ‘no’ as well. His favourite new word.

“I mean, I ordered us breakfast from the cafe down the street. I was hoping to have it all prepped before you woke up,” Felicity says with a sheepish grin.

Oliver smirks and takes a step towards her, his tall form looming over her. “Were you gonna pretend that you made all of it?”

“I could have...oh who am I kidding I almost burnt down the apartment,” Felicity grins at him sheepishly, “it’s the thought that counts?”

“Felicity, this is amazing.”

Felicity’s heart skips a beat at his tone, she basically just destroyed his entire kitchen and  _ still  _ couldn’t make him breakfast and yet he has that look on his face, a look she hasn’t seen in over fifteen years. 

He looks like he…

Felicity shakes her head free of those  _ dangerous _ thoughts only to squeak out in surprise when she sees Oliver standing a hair’s breadth away from her. 

“Oliver.”

“ _ Felicity _ .” He’s slightly breathless as he speaks, he moves his hand to cup her face, his thumb ever so gently brushing against her cheek.

Felicity ignores all warning bells going off in her head and rises on her tiptoes pressing her lips against Oliver’s and it’s like coming home.

Oliver sighs against her lips, his hand moving to the back of her neck, pulling her in closer. Felicity sighs into his mouth, her hand that somehow found its way on his hip, curls into the soft fabric of his worn T-shirt.

When she gasps, his tongue slips between her lips and he moans softly in response.

His fingers curl into her hair tugging on it gently and they both gasp in surprise. She pulls back to catch her breath, Oliver’s equally laboured breath mixing with hers. His blue eyes are wide and dilated piercing into her own.

What are they doing? 

“ _ Felicity,”  _ he says her name like a soft prayer and moves to pull her back into another kiss, Felicity going willingly when the doorbell echoes throughout the small apartment completely shattering the moment.

“Oliver.”

But Oliver is already stepping away from her, his eyes wild, his expression unreadable. He runs his fingers through his hair as he makes a beeline for the front door, refusing to make eye contact with her.

“Happy Birthday.” She whispers softly into the empty kitchen.

What just happened?

* * *

He’s avoiding Felicity like the coward he is.

Okay, he’s not avoiding her, he’s putting his son to sleep which is a reasonable excuse to why he’s in the nursery and not in the living room helping Felicity clean up the apartment for  _ his  _ friends and family.

William snores softly from his crib and Oliver sighs. Who is he kidding, William fell asleep over 20 minutes ago and he’s  _ still _ hiding out in the nursery like the coward that he is.

After their kiss, the  _ second _ one that is, was interrupted by the delivery guy the moment was lost and they sat down to have breakfast. 

Breakfast with William is always a spectacle in itself. He’s at the age where he feeds himself, which is great but he loves to talk and babble just as much, so they end up spending half the time encouraging him to eat while eating their own food. 

Oliver also suspects they were both too occupied with their own thoughts to bring up the kiss. It’s a few hours later and Oliver is  _ still _ not sure how he feels about this and thus even though Felicity made it fairly obvious she wanted to discuss things with him he took the coward’s way out and has been avoiding her for the past two hours. 

Except, William is asleep and he can’t leave Felicity to get the entire apartment ready for  _ his _ family and friends. Granted it’s mostly his mother, step father and sister as well as Tommy, John Diggle, his chief of security and his wife Lyla. But still they are his friends and family after all. 

Oliver sighs and finally gets to his feet quietly leaving the nursery.

“Are you done avoiding me now?” Felicity quips dryly, her back to Oliver as she goes about setting up the dinner table with snacks.

“Felicity.”

“It’s fine, Oliver.”

It’s anything  _ but _ and just from her tone alone.

“Can’t we just move past this stage? You know the one where you avoid me for hours at end, drag your feet for days before I finally get tired of it and confront you about it? We live in the same house now, I no longer have the temperament to deal with the days long silence.” By the time she’s finished she finally turns around to look at him, her facial expression impassive. She shoves three unopened bags of snacks into his arms. “Can you put these in the bowls for me please and get the dip from the fridge.”

When he doesn’t move she sighs, “Look, clearly that shouldn’t have happened. We aren’t kids anymore, we have responsibilities and this was just a momentary lapse in judgment given our history it was expected. It happened and now we can move on.”

With those words she spins on her heels and heads to the kitchen. Her winded speech only reminds Oliver that although they aren’t kids anymore they both clearly still have some awful habits when it comes to their problems. Oliver’s ability to avoid the topic completely and Felicity’s incessant need to just dismiss everything immediately. 

Except she’s wrong, they aren’t kids anymore and they shouldn’t just “move on”, they should be able to discuss things as adults.

He’s just about to call out to her and discuss exactly that when the doorbell rings and his family comes barging into the apartment. 

Felicity for the most part greets them enthusiastically as they walk in giving absolutely no signs that she and Oliver were just in a heated disagreement or more like one sided disagreement. 

“Hey Smoaky! I heard you tried to burn down the apartment?” Tommy greets  _ loudly _ as he enters the living room.

“You told him I tried to burn down the house?!” Felicity hisses at Oliver and he can already picture ten year old Felicity stomping her foot and putting her hands on her hips glaring at his best friend. Other than the stomping the image is almost the exact same which brings a smile to Oliver's lips, Felicity’s scowl only deepening.

“The place still smells of smoke,” his mother chimes in sniffing the air in disapproval. 

It does  _ not, _ the toaster didn’t survive but the apartment is just fine. 

“I would’ve thought you two would be over this silly cooking game you played, when you were kids,” his mother continues as she looks around the room cautiously as though she is expecting it to burst into flames any moment. 

“You didn’t think they were games when we were kids. In fact I’m pretty sure you enjoyed when we cooked dinner for the family,” Oliver counters back with frown. It hasn’t escaped his notice that his mother has been a little catty towards Felicity lately and it’s starting to get on his nerves.

“Yes, you were both children at the time you didn’t know any better. But now you clearly do, I hope my grandson was not in the kitchen when the fire took place.”

“Mom! We burnt some toast, there was no fire,” Oliver fires back. There is a small cry from the baby monitor in his hand and he frowns on seeing William waking up in the crib. He sees Felicity at the corner of his eye and he shakes his head, indicating he will get his son. Oliver then looks at his mother and holds her gently by the shoulder, “why don’t you come with me to get William? I’m sure he would be happy to see you.”

He doesn’t wait for her protest and pulls her along with him to the nursery. The moment they are out of earshot she pulls away and looks at him expectantly, “say what you need to say.”

He hates when she does this, when she takes that condescending tone with him like she always knows better. He is an adult, he is the mayor, a  _ father,  _ he is capable of making his own decisions. He needs her to stop trying to control his life and respect his decisions.

“Why don’t you like Felicity?” He blurts out sounding much more petulant than he planned. Okay, so whining like a child is not going to help his cause but it  _ is _ the root of the matter. “It’s  _ Felicity _ . Mom, you loved her when we were kids.”

“That’s before she broke your heart.” Was he really in that bad of a state that  _ everyone  _ not only noticed but remembers to this date? “Besides you aren’t kids anymore and I don’t trust her.”

“It’s not like you’ve taken the time to get to know her the  _ seven _ months she’s been here,” Oliver counters. Both Tommy and Thea have been by the house enough that they are both on friendly terms with Felicity, even John struck up a friendship with Felicity. Granted it’s very hard to say  _ no  _ to Felicity, something Oliver is all too familiar with.

“I don’t trust her,” his mother replies back stubbornly.

“Why? It’s Felicity you  _ know _ Felicity.”

“No I know the  _ brilliant  _ little girl that thought you hung the moon. This  _ woman  _ couldn’t possibly be the same little girl who had dreams of joining NASA, running her own company. Why is she suddenly back here resorting to be a  _ nanny  _ of all things. It doesn’t add up. I told you her father is no good and the apple clearly does not fall far from the tree.” 

With those words she walks into the nursery indicating the conversation is over, but she has another thing coming because she is right about one thing: they are no longer kids and Oliver will not stand by idelly and listen to her accusations. She was never fond of Felicity's father and made that abundantly clear when he was growing up. 

“Not that it’s any of your concern, two years after they moved to the UK Felicity and her mom moved to Florida to live with Felicity’s grandparents.” Oliver snaps back, huffing when his mother is already reaching in the crib to grab William who is eager to see her. “Her mom left her dad.”

“Did she also tell you that he is a wanted criminal by both the Scotland Yard and the FBI?” His mother counters, “did she also tell you she was set to graduate from MIT and two  _ months _ before graduation she mysteriously disappeared?”

Oliver’s eyes narrows at her words, leaving her to change William, “you did a background check on Felicity?”

“Yes! It’s clear that the nanny company was completely useless.” His mother remarks, despite her tone she is smiling warmly at William who is giggling up at her while she changes his diaper. “All you see is a pretty face but I always knew her father was no good.”

“You’re damning her because of her father. Do you not see how hypocritical that is? You got upset with the opposition when people called me a liar and a cheat because  _ dad _ was one?”

“Dada!” William calls out effectively cutting the tension from Oliver’s body. Oliver takes his son giving his mother a pointed look, she’s yet to respond to his question. “Leave Felicity alone.”

“Oliver, I don’t trust her,” his mother insists hot on his heels. 

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Oliver spins on his heels to face her, enunciating each word, his tone firm. 

His mother stops short her eyes narrowing in disbelief, “Oliver please tell me you are not in love with this woman again.”

Oliver scowls, “Drop it.”

He doesn’t wait for a response but hears her sigh deeply as he walks out into the living room William cheering when he sees all the familiar faces.

Oliver is  _ not _ in love with Felicity. His mother is wrong about that as she is about Felicity’s past.

* * *

“C’mon he’s cute,” Tommy cajoles, nudging Felicity playfully. 

“Who is the unexpected dude now?” Oliver chimes in with a smile. Something has been bothering him all day, and it doesn’t escape Tommy’s notice that every time Felicity tries to talk to him he somehow manages a way to avoid her. Except now that is. 

“I take offense to that,” Tommy only laughs and throws an arm over Felicity’s shoulder and she can practically see Oliver twitching at the gesture. “I have this friend Alfonso, cute, single. Perfect for Smoaky. I told her she sees too much of your ugly mug as it is.”

“Felicity and I hardly see each other, I’m always in city hall.”

It’s a weird thing to say in response to Tommy’s comment but Tommy seems absolutely tickled with the response which only makes Oliver scowl deepen.

“Are you saying  _ you  _ prefer Felicity spend her free time with  _ you?”  _ Tommy teases.

“Felicity can spend her free time however and with whoever she feels,” Oliver replies with a bite in his tone.

“Yea, you’re lucky your kid is so cute she said she prefers to spend time with both of you anyway,” Tommy laments dramatically.

She didn’t say that  _ exactly _ but she sees the way Oliver’s mood brightens immediately and she doesn’t correct Tommy, who isn’t wrong anyway.

“William and I are happy to spend time with Felicity, too,” Oliver practically preens and Felicity’s heart flutters at his words, unable to stop from smiling back at him.

“Oh you two disgust me,” Tommy shudders and walks away from them before either of them responds.

Oliver’s smile dies and Felicity reaches out to him tentatively not wanting to lose the moment, “hey, are you okay? Are we okay?”

“Yea,” Oliver responds but he takes his hand out of hers. 

“Oliver…”

“Happy Birthday!” They both turn to the small group plastering matching smiles as Thea approaches with a small red velvet cake. William is in Tommy’s arms clapping eagerly.

“Is that Mrs. Sawyers red velvet cake?” Oliver gasps as he looks at the cake closely.

“Yea, Felicity put in the order last week and went yesterday to pick it up,” Thea says with delight.

Oliver turns to Felicity with wide eyes, “ that’s a four hour drive  _ each _ way.”

Mrs. Sawyers was the small bakery in her old neighborhood. Oliver worked a few summers in the bakery helping her with stocks and other heavy lifting aspects of it and while working there he learned endless recipes. Mrs Sawyer’s red velvet was Oliver's absolute favourite. So when Felicity did a quick internet search and saw that she was still open there was no choice to make. She had to get that cake for Oliver.

“Your sister said it was still your favourite,” Felicity says sheepishly with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Felicity is being modest, she did everything, we only stored the cake for her,” Thea chimes in.

“Felicity, this is amazing,” Oliver insists.

“It’s nothing, really,” Felicity dismisses easily, but at Oliver’s look she knows it’s anything but. She sighs in resignation and smiles at him shly, “Happy Birthday, Oliver.” 

Oliver takes her hand in his and squeezes it conveying so much more than just gratitude and when their eyes meet her stomach flutters.

“Thank you.”

* * *

“And he’s out like a light,” Oliver says with a tired sigh as he collapsed onto the couch next to Felicity.

Felicity yawns as she glances at the clock below the TV noticing it’s almost midnight. “I honestly didn’t think he’d go down at all.”

Oliver rubs his face tiredly and nods in agreement, “I think it was the cake and ice cream along with all the excitement as well as his lack of a proper nap earlier today.”

“Long day,” Felicity says with another yawn.

They fall into a comfortable silence and Felicity realizes it's the first time they have been alone since they kissed. She looks across at Oliver to see that his eyes are closed as he sinks into the sofa cushions.

“Why don’t you head in? I’ll clean up the last of the bowls,” Felicity offers tapping him lightly on the arm to get his attention.

Oliver yawns but shakes his head as he sits up, “no I’ll help.”

They clean up in relative silence until Felicity can’t help but speak, her voice tentative, “did you have a good birthday?”

“Are you kidding? This was amazing, Felicity. It was so much more than I was even expecting,” Oliver says with earnest his smile wide.

Felicity returns his smile in kind and releases an internal sigh of relief. Birthdays have always been a big deal for them, when they were kids. With their birthdays only three months apart they always went all out as a way to kick off the summer with his and then end it with hers. 

Felicity didn’t really think about all that when she had planned for Oliver’s birthday; she went with it as ideas came to her. It wasn’t until she was driving back to the city with Oliver’s favourite cake in the passenger seat did she stop and wonder if she was doing too much. After all they don’t have the kind of friendship they used to have when they were kids.

But Oliver’s grateful expression casts away any doubt she had about her going overboard.

“Hey.” She stops when she feels his hand on her elbow and he gently tugs her towards him. His eyes are downcast, a soft smile tugging on his lips. “Thank you, Felicity. I felt like we were kids again...you didn’t need to do all of this...but I just wanna say I really appreciate it.”

“Maybe we can keep the tradition alive?” Felicity offers timidly. 

“I’d like that.” When Oliver licks his lips as their eyes meet, she knows they are aware of the hidden layers behind her words. Which was not her intent with celebrating his birthday, but now that he is standing in front of her she can’t imagine it any other way. 

Oliver moves his hand to her waist, his own breathing hitch. “ _ Felicity _ .”

The moment he breathes out her name, she rises on her toes and presses her lips against his. The moment their lips touch it's like a dam has been broken and all their restraint goes out the window. Gone was the tentative uncertainty of their previous kiss. Oliver takes a bold step towards her, his arm looping around her waist as he pulls her flush against his body.

She grabs his arm, her fingers curling into his bicep and she gasps as he nips at her neck then soothes her heated skin with his tongue. Her hand slowly moves off the expanse of his back and grips his shoulders as he nips and sucks on her neck. 

So much muscle. Oh  _ wow _ .

“Hey, I had muscles when we were kids.” Oliver grumbles good naturally against her skin, the soft vibrations sending jolts of pleasure through her body.

“Yea, not like this.” Felicity gasps out her fingers digging into his shoulder to prove her point.

Oliver only huffs and then in one swift movement he hooks his hand under her leg and hoists her into the air Felicity can’t help but squeal in surprise. They are at eye level now and Oliver smirks back at her with his own grip on her thigh tightening. “ _ That’s  _ new.”

“I am pretty sure I have carried you before in grade school,” Oliver huffs again as he pulls her in for another kiss with his  _ free _ hand. 

He’s walking towards the bedrooms barely even breaking a sweat and Felicity’s stomach curls with desire. She is practically panting as she speaks, her fingers tugging gently on his hair. “Not like  _ this _ .”

“Really?” His eyebrows raise and he hikes her up a little bit more which she knows is all for show. But she can’t help but release a small moan in pleasure 

“ _ Felicity _ ,” He gasps out as her nails gently scratch against his beard, her leg tightening around his waist.

He walks up to his bed and she’s holding her breath waiting for him to toss her in the bed, but then he surprises her yet again when he kneels on the bed and slowly lowers her down, his own body hovering her.

“Seriously, how freaking strong are you?”

Oliver barks out in laughter at her words, as he hovers over, “how’s about I just show you?”

He doesn't wait for her to respond and swoops down to kiss her firmly on the lips, his solid form pressing into hers.

Felicity gasps out his name, her hands running down the firm contours of his back, one leg wraps around his waist pulling him closer to her. 

She grabs the edge of his t-shirt tugging at it impatiently, “too much clothes.”

“Still impatient as ever.” Oliver teases between kisses. He leans back on his heels and yanks off his tshirt in one swoop, his eyes never leaving hers.

She can feel his arousal through the thin material of his jeans, her hips squirming on their own accord.

Oliver shifts lower so that he’s now straddling her thighs much to his displeasure and he only smirks in amusement and her soft protests. He places his hands on her thighs and slowly pushes her dress up her body, his mouth trailing behind leaving open mouth wet kisses along her heated skin.

She squirms under his ministrations gasping out his name. His tongue swirls around her belly button knowing it’s an erogenous zone for her. When his teeth gently nip against her skin she moans out his name, her fingers tugging on his hair.

“ _ Oliver.” _

He’s hitting all the right spots, playing her like a fiddle. His hand trails further up her body, cupping her breasts, squeezing it as his tongue continues to lap at her skin making her keen out. He’s barely touching her, and yet her entire body feels as though it’s on fire.

She wraps her legs around Oliver’s waist, her heels digging into his thighs as she tries to find traction. Oliver’s fingers slip under the cups of her bra and he tweaks her already hardened nipples.

“ _ Oliver.  _ Fuck.” She hisses out in surprise.

She can feel him smirking against her skin as he painstakingly makes his way up her stomach, his fingers never once stopping their gentle ministration on her nipples. 

Her entire body is on fire and overly sensitized by his actions.

Suddenly he’s straddling her stomach, both hands on either of the breasts massaging them softly through the soft material of her bra before he is shoving the material up and out of the way so that breasts are bare to him.

“ _ Fuck.”  _ Oliver practically pants, the hunger in his eyes alone making her nipples harden. “ _ Felicity.” _

She missed hearing him say her name like that, Oliver has always been able to say just her name with so much emotion and right now all she sees is the heat and desire reflecting in his eyes, his movements and something else she refuses to acknowledge.

She’s pulled violently from her thoughts when Oliver lowers his wet lips onto her hardened nipple. His teeth nip gently at her sensitive skin, his tongue swirling around her nipple. Her arousal building with each tug of his lips.

She runs her fingers through his hair tugging on his hair pushing him into her, demanding more. When Oliver releases his hold on her and the cold air hits her wet nipples she hisses out in both pleasure and frustration. Oliver chuckles against her skin his beard creating delicious friction against her sensitive flesh. Before she can yank him back to where he was he moves to her nexts breast lavishing it with equal enthusiasm the coil of arousal tightening low in her belly.

She needs to kiss him.

She tugs him gently by the hair to get his attention, and when he looks up at her his blue eyes are wild and dilated, his lips swollen. She tugs on him again and a soft smile filters across his features when he finally understands what she wants. He crawls up her body and kisses her heatedly. His own body now flushed against hers and she can feel his belt buckle digging against her bare stomach, his arousal against her thigh. She needs him naked  _ now. _

“You could say  _ please,”  _ Oliver teases. He kisses her once, twice and then finally pulls back to sit on his knees as he tugs off her dress and bra in one ease swoop. 

She’s now complete bare to him and not just her body. She looks him up and down with a small pout, “you are overdressed, Mr. Queen.”

_ “ _ Maybe you should do something about that Ms. Smoak,” Oliver volleys back. He is about to lower his mouth back onto one of her breasts, but she holds onto his shoulder and pushes him onto his back, a move she knows was more him than her.

She straddles his lap in only her panties and moans in pleasure as she new friction his jeans creates against the thin material of her panties.

Oliver’s fingers curl against her hips, his eyes rolling back in pleasure at the image they make, all too familiar to the both of them.

“It’s like we’re back in the back of your truck, hiding between the trees all over again,” Felicity teases as her fingers scratch against Oliver’s nipples and Oliver’s hips rise high off the bed in reaction.

“One thing is different,” Oliver points out with a growl.

And before Felicity can react he has her on her back and her panties off her legs before her bare ass hits the sheet.

“ _ That’s _ new.” Felicity says with a giggles. She loves that after all this time they are able to fall back into that familiar banter that was always so prominent in their relationship. She didn’t realize just how much she missed Oliver, she missed  _ them _ until this moment.

She watches Oliver quickly rid himself of both his jeans and his boxers so they are both equally naked. It’s not until Oliver is hovering over her body, his arousal dangerously close to where they both want him to be, does it really hit them what they are about to do.

Oliver gently cups her cheek with his hand, he’s currently balancing his body weight on the other hand and under different circumstances she would have marveled at his sheer strength, but she can’t tear away from the look in his eyes. His features soften, his chest still panting. “Felicity, are you sure about this?”

“Are you?” She counters back, after all he was the one that she hurt in the end.

But as always Oliver surprises her and swoops down and kisses her and she kisses him back with equal vigour trying to convey everything she’s feeling. Everything she is feeling for  _ him _ in just one kiss.

There is so much she wants to say, so much she needs to say to him.

“Oliver…”

“Let me get the condom.” Oliver says kissing her quickly before he disappears into his bathroom.

Before any self doubt can simmer in her brain he runs back into the bedroom naked with an unopened box of condoms.

He’s reading the label as he walks towards her small frown on his lips, “Tommy bought these for me a few months after William was born, needed to make sure it hadn’t expired.”

He’s just so  _ cute _ about it Felicity can’t help but giggle. Oliver seems put out with her giggles and quickly goes about putting on the condom and, before she knows it, he’s crawling on top of her. His lips are all over her, and her giggles slowly morph into soft moans.

She throws her head back, her back arching as Oliver kisses along the slope of her neck. The pleasure that was slowly simmering low in her belly, rising with each swipe of Oliver’s tongue. He gently parts her legs, and their eyes meet as he slowly sinks into her, both of them holding their breath. 

She reaches blindly for his hand, and she gently squeezes it, giving him permission to move, and once he starts to move his hips, her own hips rise with every thrust. It's like a damn has been broken and neither of them can stop. Their hips move in time, hands wandering, Felicity’s fingers squeeze Oliver’s ass pulling him deeper into her.

“Don’t stop,” she gasps out one leg hooking around his waist changing the angle slightly that has them both panting.

“ _ Felicity,” _ Oliver’s blue eyes are crystal clear as he stares down at her. “Felicity, I..”

But she pulls him down to her crashing her lips against his, stopping him. She can’t. She won’t.

Oliver seems to sense her hesitance, and he deepens the kiss. They both come to a mutual understanding no more words are exchanged as they slowly lose themselves in each other. 

The ramifications of what just occurred hanging over their heads, neither of them quite ready to acknowledge it. Not ready for the inevitable fall out that comes next. 

For now they just have each other.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay! Life got a little crazy back in July. I'm hoping to go back to regular updates every weekend.
> 
> The response to the last chapter was crazy! thank you all so much

“Tee!” William calls out to Felicity impatiently his little hands slapping the plastic tray of his high chair. “Tee!”

“I’m coming, Mr. grumpy pants.” Felicity calls out in exasperation his bowl of Mac and cheese in her hand.

As she walks towards him he starts to bounce eagerly little hands stretching out towards the food. Felicity laughs as she sticks the bowl to the surface and hands William his fork, “you couldn’t possibly be  _ that _ hungry you just had some bananas.”

“Nana!” William chirps with a mouth full of Mac and cheese, he scoops up another bite and gums loudly in appreciation. “Mmm.”

“Yea your Daddy’s mac and cheese is pretty magical. Much like he is…” Felicity mutters to herself, her mind going back to the previous night. Her eyes widen in horror as she looks down at William who is completely unaware of her musings. His entire focus on his lunch. “I’m so glad you can’t repeat anything I say.”

William looks up at her and smiles at her dimples full on display, “Dada!”

“Yea we like your daddy, even if he's a stubborn man who ran away this morning,” Felicity grumbles. Rationally, she knew he had an important meeting with the mayor of Coast City early this morning, but waking up alone after their night together had sent warning bells off immediately. It doesn’t help that Oliver has yet to return her text, the whole thing doesn’t sit well with her. 

She knows there’s a lot at stake, case in point, the toddler sitting in front of her. But this wasn’t some momentary lapse in judgement, not to her at least. She knows what they are getting themselves into, the urge to want to be with him has caught her entirely by surprise. She assumed that once things progressed beyond the first kiss that meant they both were ready to take that next step.

The problem is they never talked about it, but like her mother always said when you assume…

They are adults now and they need to actually sit and discuss this before things move further. Felicity constantly analyzing Oliver’s every move and word does nothing if she doesn’t talk to him. 

“Tee!” William calls out to her pulling her out of her musings. He holds out his fork with some Mac and cheese on the end, to her. “Tee!”

“For me?” She asks with a smile, she leans forward and opens her mouth and makes a big production of letting William feed her his food. “So good! Thank you, William.”

“Tu’,” William parrots, he’s been trying so hard lately to talk to them more and more.

Felicity's heart swells at the sweet smile he sends her. She loves this little boy more than she thought possible.

How did she get here?

She’s fallen completely for William and is in love with Oliver Queen  _ again _ (although a part of her knows she never stopped loving him). 

If she told her mother this she would only smile knowingly as if she didn’t expect anything different. Her mother always had a sixth sense about these things. Years ago when they were both living in her grandmother's pool house trying to make ends meet, her mother looked her in the eye and insisted that even after everything, Oliver Queen would be the only one for her. 

She’d come home nursing yet another broken heart and her mother would tell her, it’s fine because one day Oliver would come back into her life. This is a notion Felicity never believed in. In fact as she got older she went out of her way to meet new people to prove her mother wrong. Yet, every time she came home mending a broken or angry heart her mother would just look at her knowingly. 

At one point Felicity wondered if deep down she believed her mother and was sabotaging her own relationships. When she met Cooper and he betrayed her in the worst possible way, Felicity realized it wasn’t her mother’s fairytale beliefs that got her where she was. Felicity was just unlucky in love and she decided that she was better off alone.

But then Oliver Queen walked back into her life - or she walked back into his- and  _ everything  _ changed.

She wants to talk to her mother, but she can’t. She has no clue where her mother is at the moment, and her mother can’t know where she is either.

She hates living in this lie.

What was she even thinking, sleeping with Oliver, making all of this that more complicated? She can’t do this. 

_ They _ can’t do this.

With a heavy heart knowing what needs to be done, she turns her focus back on William and cleaning him up from his lunch.

By the time they are both settled on the couch for a movie, the tightness in Felicity’s chest has yet to loosen. She’s just about to fall asleep, the previous night’s activities catching up to her when her phone vibrates next to her, startling her awake.

She looks down at the screen to see her best friend's face smiling back at her, not her mother, but the next best thing.

She places a sleeping William on the couch, using a pillow to secure him and then answers the phone putting a smile on her face, “hey stranger. How’s the Amazon Forest treating you?”

“I don’t know about the Amazon Forest, but my tour guide Javier has been treating me, good.  _ Real _ good.” Iris smirks at her knowingly.

Felicity gasps scandalized, “I thought you said never mix business with pleasure?”

“Yes, but when they look  _ that _ hot and break open a coconut with their bare hands all bets are off. I’m still a heterosexual woman.” Iris waves her hand in front of her face and Felicity can’t help but laugh. “Hey don’t knock it till you try it, those coconuts weren’t the only things that were manhandled.”

“Iris!” 

“I’m sorry, I forgot you were being celibate after the whole Cooper thing,” Iris replies with a frown, “not that I blame you the jackass got what he deserved.”

“That and I’m still paying for it,” Felicity says with a sigh, yet again being reminded of her current predicament and what she can not have.

“That’s actually why I called,” Iris says as she rearranges herself on her bed. “It’s been almost 8 months since you moved to Starling.”

Of course Iris would keep track of that, the thing is the last time they talked Felicity said her searches had come up empty, except Felicity never did any searches to begin with. In fact, her laptop is still locked in her suitcase. The only reason she is in Starling is because it’s the best place for her to start, she has a deadline, one that is approaching ever so quickly and yet, she has not so much as looked at her laptop. She has people to answer to, and she knows how important this is, but yet she can't find it in her to open up that particular pandora’s box. Oliver and William were never part of her plan and now, she got lost in this life with these two Queen men, a life she desperately wants but knows she cannot have.

“Yesterday was Oliver’s birthday and I was a little preoccupied with organizing that for him,” Felicity confesses.

“You were preoccupied with  _ Oliver’s  _ birthday.” Iris speaks slowly, her eyes narrow suspiciously at Felicity.

“Well, it's not like  _ William _ could throw him a birthday party,” Felicity says with a huff. 

“Oh my  _ god _ . You slept with him didn't you?” Iris accuses.

“It was only one time,” Felicity confesses, her best friend's judgement aside she is glad to finally tell someone about it.

“So it was a one time thing? Not that I blame you, I’m surprised you took so long. I’ve seen pictures of this guy, and you deserve a medal for not jumping him sooner.” Iris remarks, but her dark brown eyes narrows suspiciously, “there is more to this than you just sleeping with your boss. What aren’t you telling me?”

“Oliver and I used to date, it was a long time ago when I lived in Starling,” Felicity explains with a rush it feels so good to get this off her chest. Iris' eyes are wide in surprise, clearly not expecting that particular revelation.

“He’s your ex boyfriend?” Iris asks scandalized, “you decided to work for your ex-boyfriend?”

And so she finally tells Iris the story that is Oliver and Felicity.

"Felicity, you guys were just kids. It’s not your fault your dad got a job offer to London. And I use the term “job offer” very lightly  _ clearly.” _ Felicity grunts in response. “Granted you should have told Oliver the truth from the beginning.”

“Yes, I know that,” Felicity remarks, it’s been fifteen years she is well aware of what she  _ should  _ have done.

“Clearly, you also know that you need to tell Oliver why you are in Starling now before anything goes further,” Iris voices what Felicity has been thinking all day, but afraid to admit to herself. “If I can know, I think Oliver deserves to know too, especially as his son is involved.”

“ _ No _ . It’s not the same thing! William is  _ not  _ involved, neither is Oliver and I intend to keep it that way. Besides I didn’t  _ tell _ you anything, you just happened to be home…”

“When you got  _ arrested _ ? Yea I’m still traumatized by that, by the way. And as someone who found out unexpectedly, I’m only going to say this once. You  _ need _ to tell Oliver before you take this further. This is clearly not  _ just _ sex. If it was you would have slept with him the moment you arrived. You’re clearly still in love with this man and if you want to fix your past mistakes you need to not let history repeat itself.”

“I’m not in love with him!” Felicity protests weakly, she can barely convince herself and when she finally looks her best friend in the eyes, Iris is equally unimpressed.

“Even he doesn’t buy that,” Iris says nodding to the toddler who is slowly waking up watching the pair curiously. “Hey, William!”

“Hi!” William chirps in response, surprising Iris as her grin widening.

“You tell Felicity she needs to tell your Daddy that she loves him, okay?” 

“Lub ooh!” William chirps smacking his lips.

“Oh! He’s never said that before!” Felicity’s heart soars and she leans forward to kiss William on the cheeks at which he giggles in response. “I love you too, Bub.”

“Oh, Felicity, you’re totally gone for this child  _ and  _ his father,” Iris remarks and Felicity momentarily forgot her friend was still on the line.

She can’t even deny it. She is so screwed

“You need to do something about this before it blows up in your face,” Iris warns. There is suddenly a loud rumble of thunder and then the video connection cuts out. 

Two seconds later Felicity receives a text about power lost and Iris once against reminding her to talk to Oliver.

Easier said than done.

* * *

**_Twenty Years Ago_ **

_ Twelve year old Oliver stands on his tiptoes at the edge of the batting cage, his eyes roaming the stands for a familiar face. He sees his Mom sitting at the very front, wearing his team jersey with a smile on her face. His five month old sister Thea sitting in her lap, in matching jersey clapping eagerly. Next to his mother is Walter, his father’s best friend, but his father is nowhere to be seen. _

_ Oliver’s shoulders slump in disappointment just as a firm hand claps him on the shoulder. “Look alive Queen! You can see your family after the game. Go sit next to Diggle and wait for your turn to bat.” _

_ “Sure thing coach!” Oliver remarks tipping his cap down at the coach before he runs off to take a seat next to Andy Diggle. _

_ Tommy is currently at the bat, but Oliver finds himself glancing back at his family every few seconds, and each time he does he is disappointed when he does not see his father. _

_ After getting called out by his coach yet again, Oliver finally focuses on the game, his shoulders heavy with disappointment. _

_ When it’s his time to bat he hears cheering and he can’t help but grin, but when he hears a whistle, he startles in surprise. Moira Queen is not a whistle kind of woman, especially with his 5 month old sister in hand. He looks to the stands and is surprised to see  _ **_Felicity_ ** _ blowing a whistle and clapping to large foam fingers. She’s dressed in all green, his team's colours and on the front of her jersey says Queen with his number, but clearly drawn on by Felicity. _

_ She’s nuts, but Oliver can’t help but grin. _

_ When he hits a home run, Felicity is cheering the loudest and Oliver can’t help but wave across at his family and Felicity who are all on their feet cheering him on. Felicity is still making the most noise. _

_ In the end his team still loses, but is not bummed out as the rest of the team. _

_ “Did you invite the geek?” Tommy asks him as he runs up to Oliver after the game. _

_ “Don’t call her that,” Oliver grumbles as he tucks his helmet under his arm. _

_ “Is she your girlfriend?” _

_ “Don’t be an idiot,” Oliver snaps, shoving Tommy to the side as they make their way to Oliver’s family and Felicity. “I told her I had my big game today. I didn’t think she would come.” _

_ “She cheered the most even though we lost,” Tommy points out with a smirk. _

_ “So? It’s the most cheering we’ve ever got,” Oliver fires back. _

_ When they approach the small group, Felicity is clutching her foam finger standing a few feet away from Oliver’s family. Oliver tosses his helmet to his mother, completely ignoring his little sister who is sitting in Walter’s arms and he walks right up to Felicity. _

_ “What are you doing here?” He asks Felicity, a little harsher than intended and he can see her deflate immediately. “I mean I didn’t think you would come.” _

_ “You mentioned that you weren’t sure if your Dad would show up, so I thought I’d come cheer you on, so you had a familiar face. I didn’t think your family would be here.” Felicity replies shyly. “You talked about this game for two weeks, I knew how important it was to you.” _

_ Oliver is at a loss for words. For years he and Felicity have butt heads over their work, their projects and just about everything in class. He’s never actually seen her outside of school. He was sure she didn’t even like him, yet she’s standing head to toe in his team's colours, proudly wearing his name on her chest.  _

_ It’s things the older boy’s girlfriends always do. Oliver doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t hate it either. _

_ “Oliver?” His mother walks up to them preventing Oliver from responding. She smiles warmly at Felicity, “who’s your cheerleader?” _

_Felicity turns bright red and Tommy giggles madly behind Oliver. Oliver elbows his best friend hard_ _in the chest before turning to his mother. “This is Felicity, my friend.”_

_ Felicity beams at him and holds out her hand to Moira, “Hi, Mrs. Queen. It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t realize you were all coming. I would have brought foam fingers for you too.” _

_ She waves the foam finger to emphasize her point and Oliver giggles. He turns to his Mom smiling brightly, “Can Felicity come with us for pizza?” _

_ “If that’s okay with your parents, Felicity,” Moira says pleasantly, her eyes roaming the small park for them. _

_ “Oh, my Mom dropped me off before her shift at the casino and my Dad is on a business trip. I was going to ride my bike home after the game.” Felicity explains gesturing to the lone pink bike that was tied to a bench a few yards away. _

_ “Oh,” his mother frowns at that, and looks across at Walter, “nonsense. After pizza you can come by us and your mother can pick you up after her shift. The boys were planning on going in the pool after. We’ll stop by the mall to get you a suit, how does that sound?” _

_ Felicity looks at his mother with wide eyes, clearly not expecting that invitation. She bites her lip and digs the tip of her sneakers into the dirt. “I don’t know how to swim.” _

_ “Oliver can teach you!” Tommy chimes in with a grin, Felicity looks at him uncertainly while Oliver shoves Tommy yet again. _

_ “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Felicity says her eyes downcast, clearly taking Oliver’s reaction to Tommy that he doesn’t want to. _

_ “No! I can teach you! I want you to come.” Oliver insists, getting a little tongue tied himself. What’s wrong with him? This is Felicity for crying out loud. “You can use Tommy’s floaties.” _

_ “Hey! I haven’t used those since we were 6, you idiot!” Tommy scowls as he shoves Oliver. _

_ “Boys.” Moira warns, putting a stop to the fight immediately. She shakes her head as they run off to the car and looks at Felicity warmly, “why don’t you give Walter the key to your bike and he’ll put it in the trunk for you.” _

_ “Thank you so much for inviting me, Mrs. Queen.” Felicity says brightly as she hands over her keys to Walter. _

_ “Can you go and stop those two from fighting for me?” Moira asks gesturing to Oliver and Tommy who are now rolling around on the ground. _

_ “I can try.” Felicity promises, with those words she runs off towards the pair calling after them to stop acting like an animal and Moira can’t help but laugh at the exchange. _

* * *

He is a coward.

He paces the small hallway in front of his apartment, the bag of Chinese food tucked under his arm.

He’s been out here for almost 15 minutes now trying to figure out what exactly he wants to say to Felicity. He left this morning while she was sleeping. It was a coward’s way out but he woke up in a panic his first thought was if he made a huge mistake. 

The fact that was his very  _ first _ thought made him hightail it out of the apartment before he ruined one of the best friendships he’s ever had.

They have been down this road before. They were best friends for 7 years before they got together and although that summer was amazing to him it was not worth the lost friend. 

Given how easily they were able to fall back into their previous friendship in the nine months Felicity has been here, Oliver wonders if taking their friendship to the next level was actually their downfall.

Had they not gotten together, would Felicity leaving not affect their friendship? After all, MSN, cell phones, and emails all existed back then. Oliver is almost certain their friendship would have continued, distance be damned, except Oliver changed everything when he kissed her.

Things are different now, he’s different, they both are and most importantly, he has William to think about. William is already so attached to Felicity, and if she leaves again Oliver isn't the only one that will be hurt this time.

He can’t take that chance on his son, his son has lost too much already, no matter how much it hurts Oliver knows this is the right thing to do.

With a deep breath he pushes open the front door as he walks into the apartment he is immediately greeted by loud giggles. 

“Dada home! Dada home!” William yells excitedly running at full speed to Oliver.

This has been their usual greeting the past few weeks and it’s so exciting to see William into a little person. It’s all thanks to Felicity who has been encouraging and teaching William new words. His son absorbs it like a sponge, Felicity had mentioned she wanted to teach him another language, so far they have been doing numbers. William is barely 16 months old and Oliver is still amazed by him, granted he is clearly biased.

He automatically looks across the living room, and smiles fleetly when he sees Felicity leaning against the back of the couch watching them, much like she has always done the past few weeks as well. 

Except, this time Felicity does not walk up to greet him like she normally does. She does not walk away either so that’s a good sign.

“Hi.” Oliver greets her softly. William leaves his toy with Oliver and runs back to his other toys completely unaware of the current tension building in the room.

“Hey, how was your meeting with the mayor?” Felicity asks her voice laden with uncertainty. 

Oliver hates this, it took them weeks to get back to  t hat familiarity they used to have, and now things are even more awkward than before. It only makes him more certain that ending this thing before it gets even more complicated is the right thing to do.

“It was good. We decided I’ll come to Coast City to check out the community centre before we make any final decisions. I was thinking of taking William up there, maybe stay for a few extra days. We can go to the aquarium.” He’d been thinking about the trip for the past week, and he had every intent to invite Felicity. But hearing it all come out now, he doesn’t know why he decided to imply that Felicity was not invited.

“It would be good for you and William to spend some time together just the two of you,” Felicity says with a strained smile.

“Yea,” Oliver echoes, hating the way his heart tightens at her words. This is what he wanted though, for them to keep their distance. They need to stop blurring the lines of what they are to each other. He is her boss, they can’t change that. 

“We should talk.” Felicity says solemnly. Oliver nods in agreement.

He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs, “I shouldn’t have left this morning, like I did.”

“No,” Felicity remarks in agreement. Her tone is neutral, but Oliver can see the way she is twisting her fingers nervously and it’s comforting to know she is as apprehensive about this conversation as he is. 

She is about to continue but he quickly cuts her off, he needs to get this off his chest and a small part of him is terrified to hear what she has to say.

“Last night was great. I could never regret being with you, Felicity.” He says sincerely, his heart feels heavy as he thinks back on that night. Felicity has her own thoughtful smile. “You’re Felicity. I could never regret us, but…”

“But, we’re not kids anymore,” she continues for him with a look of understanding. His own heart aching at her admission. They both glance at William, who seems to sense them looking at him and he looks up offering them a toothy smile. Oliver’s chest aches as he waves half heartedly at William. 

He then looks back at Felicity, his chest aching, “I just think with William, it would be wise...I don’t want to take the chance.”

Felicity stops at his words, he almost said that he couldn’t take the chance that she would leave again and from the look on her face he suspects she knows exactly what he’s implying.

“If this doesn’t work out, I…I don’t want William to get hurt,” Oliver continues. If he’s truly being honest with himself,  _ he  _ is afraid of getting hurt as well.

“No, you’re right. Neither of us want William to get hurt. Last night was good...great even. But it can’t happen again. That’s not what this is, we have a good thing going here, at least I think so.” Felicity remarks but she hardly sounds convinced. “Sex just complicates things. It always does and I’m your nanny, you know. I’m here to take care of William, that’s it. You’re my boss, it’s completely inappropriate.”

She pushes off the back of the couch and wipes her hands nervously on her pants. Oliver thought they were more than just boss/employee all these months. He knows they were, and he’s certain Felicity does too, but he can’t point that out, without indicating what Felicity means to him and if he opens that can of worms there is no way he can take it back. There is no other way for Felicity to interpret his words, so he just nods his head in agreement despite the fact he is almost certain Felicity is waiting for him to correct her. Except he can’t.

“Since you’re home. I’m gonna head out for a bit, clear my head. Finally start working on my start up, that I just can’t seem to start up.” Her joke falls flat, but he doesn’t give him a second glance, or waits for him to reply and she quickly makes her way back to her bedroom.

A few minutes later she’s dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, her laptop bag draped across her shoulder. She ruffles William’s hair in passing, offers Oliver a tentative smile. When she leaves the apartment without a word, another set of regrets start to simmer, once again he wonders if he’s made a terrible mistake.

It’s only after she’s gone that Oliver sees her laptop sitting next to his on the dining room table, he thinks nothing of the fact that Felicity clearly has two laptops. He’s far too focused on the fact that she left without a word. Despite the fact that he made this decision so that things  _ wouldn’t _ change between them, he feels as though  _ everything _ has changed, and not for the better.


	7. Chapter 7

Felicity walks around the empty, silent apartment a bit lost. It’s been two days since Oliver and William left for Coast City and she feels like a fish out of water. She’s already cleaned the apartment twice  _ and  _ caught up on some of her shows. She has her two laptops running an algorithm trying to find her father or any trace of his organization. 

Her searches are not what has her uneasy, she updated Oliver’s firewalls and added an extra server for protection months ago. It’s completely safe for her to do this.

What has her uneasy, though, is the empty apartment and the fact that this is the first day in almost a year she’s been without Oliver nor William.

She just  _ misses _ them greatly.

The first night they left she cried herself to sleep, hating herself for getting so emotional. They’re only away for a week, it’s not the end of the world, but part of her knows it’s only the beginning of what would inevitably be her new normal.

She hates it.

She hates how much she misses both of them. The first day she didn’t hear from Oliver at all and her heart  _ ached _ . She misses him, she misses William most of all she misses how things used to be. Ever since she and Oliver slept together things have changed for the worse. Yes, she knows it isn’t long term, that eventually she’ll plan on moving back to Boston to live with Iris, but now she can’t imagine her life without either Oliver nor William. Now, she can feel them slipping through her fingers.

She knows what she has to do, she knows what she wants to do, but she’s utterly terrified of involving even more people into a sordid affair that is her life.

She hates her father. She hates Cooper. She hates them both for backing her into a corner like this.

She grabs a pillow and throws it on the floor hitting one of William’s stuffed animals that squeaks loudly at the impact.

“Now what did that pillow ever do to you?” A cold  _ familiar  _ voice calls out and Felicity’s blood runs cold.

“How did you get in here?” Felicity snarls, her finger curling around the tv remote in her hand.

Her companion, Agent Amanda Waller, only glances at Felicity’s hand and scoffs.

“Ms. Smoak, we both know you are in no position to question me,” Amanda Waller drones on as she walks further into the apartment as if she owned the place. She glances at Felicity mini station with her two laptops and tablet and scoffs again. “Well at least you haven’t completely abandoned your job.”

“It’s not a  _ job, _ you don’t pay me.” Felicity snaps back angrily.

“Need I remind you why you’re not rotting in some jail cell?” Waller remarks dryly, completely unimpressed. She looks around the apartment and then back at Felicity expectantly, “although by the looks of things, you’re not exactly short for cash either. Is this why you requested to be moved to Starling? Is _he_ why you requested to move back to Starling?”

She holds up a photo of Oliver shaking his hand with the president from a few years ago, the older woman practically dwarfed by Oliver’s tall figure.

“My personal life is none of your concern, Waller.” Felicity snips back. Yes, Waller may hold all the cards right now, and as much as Felicity needs Waller, Waller has  _ nothing _ without Felicity’s expertise and they both know it.

“It became  _ my _ concern when you thought playing  _ house _ was more important than your job.” Waller practically hisses in accusation. She tosses a picture of William, Oliver and Felicity from William’s first birthday onto Felicity’s lap to emphasize her point. “The FBI did not let you go free so that you can shack up with an old boyfriend.”

“I’m hardly  _ free _ if I have you breaking into my apartment,” Felicity snaps back.

“Last I checked this apartment was leased to one Oliver Jonas Queen,” Waller remarks. At the mention of Oliver’s name Felicity’s blood runs cold. 

“Leave him out of this. He is none of your concern,” Felicity growls angrily. “I promised to find my stupid father and his stupid organization, that does not give you the right to insert yourself into my life like this, coming unannounced. We made an agreement, you gave me one year to find these people, last I checked I still had time.”

“Agreement? No, that was an ultimatum, Smoak. Either you find your father and his organization or you go to jail for the AI  _ you _ created and your ex-boyfriend exploited. You don’t hold the cards here, Smoak. I do,” Waller warns, her eyes narrowing at Felicity.

“Except, if I choose to go to jail you will never find my father  _ or _ his organization,” Felicity counters. She can see the flicker of hesitation cross Waller’s face before she schools her feature once again. They both know she’s right. “You need me just as much as I need you.”

Waller only hums her eyes never wavering from the picture of Felicity, Oliver and William. “So you’re willing to go to jail for  _ this _ ex-boyfriend but not the last?”

“Cooper can rot in hell for all I care,” Felicity says with a scowl, “he abused  _ my _ creation and then tried to make me take the fall for it. Overwatch was  _ never  _ meant to be exploited like that. I’ll never regret destroying it.”

It’s not completely true, she’s proud of Overwatch, the AI was lightyears ahead of its time, but Cooper showed exactly what she was capable of in the wrong hands and destroying her was the only option. 

Except, Felicity spent years perfecting Overwatch and destroying the AI nearly destroyed her.

“Doesn’t explain why you are so willing to go to jail for Queen is it?” Waller remarks lightly, completely unfazed by Felicity’s words. She picks up yet another picture of Oliver and William to examine it more closely, despite the fact Felicity suspects the woman knows more about Oliver than Felicity does. “Is it the pretty face? Didn't peg you for the gullible type, Smoak.”

“What are you on about, Amanda?” Felicity snaps back angrily. She always hated when the woman talked in code, trying to appear as though she knows more than Felicity. “Oliver has nothing to do with this. You already sent my mother away…”

“For her own protection, in which  _ you  _ agreed to.”

“I did not  _ agree _ to anything. I was forced to choose my mother’s safety over my own,” Felicity all but growls angrily in return. “My point is, leave Oliver out of this. You so much as  _ look _ at him in the wrong way, the deal is off.”

“You do know that if Helix’s head office is in Starling like we suspect it would be beneficial for the Mayor to be aware of what is going on in his city.” Waller points with a knowing smirk. 

Felicity blood runs cold. The nanny agency, the fact that she was the  _ only _ person Oliver saw for the job.

She should have known.

“ _ No _ !” Felicity scrambles to her feet, the panic slowly rising within her. “He is off limits. Do not drag him into this!”

“Did you really think that after getting  _ arrested, _ the FBI was going to let you run  _ free _ and not keep tabs on what you did and who you came in contact with?” Waller scoffs, “for a certified genius, you can be incredibly blind, Smoak.  _ Nothing _ you have done since leaving Quantico headquarters has been  _ your _ choice, you must know that.”

“Oliver has nothing to do with this. I do not want him involved in this.  _ Please!”  _ She’s practically pleading with the woman now. This woman who doesn’t have one sympathetic bone in her body.

“Relax, you’re embarrassing yourself, Smoak,” Felicity scowls at her demeaning tone. “By my calculation you have less than two months to find Helix and your father. If you don’t then we will be forced to take you back to headquarters for you to be monitored.”

Felicity stops short at her words, the underlying threat evident. She fought tooth and nail to be allowed to find her father on her own. She knows him and if he gets wind that she’s working for the FBI, he will go even deeper underground. Which is what she told the FBI when they first tasked her to find him. Waller knows that which is why her threatening words worry Felicity and what’s worse is Waller  _ knows _ that.

“My father has been in hiding for almost 10 years. I can’t just snap my fingers and find him, which is what I told you people before.” Felicity retorts, but with little bite because she knows she is not going to like what Waller has to tell her.

“Which is why we offered you our state of the art equipment, some of which you were practically salivating over.” Felicity tuts at her words, she wouldn’t say  _ salivate _ maybe just a little bleary eyed at all the tech. “Not that it matters. I will be back for you in a few weeks and this time we will be taking you undercover like I originally suggested the first time, none of this letting the  _ criminal _ call the shots.”

“Undercover? What does that even mean, a new identity?” Felicity asks with trepidation. She remembers when she got arrested they wanted to completely wipe her identity and work for them in exchange for her immunity. The only problem with that was her mother and Iris, she refused to let the only two people she cared about think she was dead.

Felicity’s heart tightens in her chest when she finally realizes what Waller is implying. “I can see that the genius brain of yours has figured it out. Two months Ms. Smoak, either you find the information we need or you come back with me. Those are your options. I’ll see myself out.”

“I didn’t exactly invite you in the first place.” Felicity grumbles as the woman leaves. 

She collapses on the sofa, her eyes catching on the picture of her Oliver and William. She needs to tell Oliver about what’s going on and she is absolutely terrified of what he will say.

  
  


* * *

“Tee! Tee! Wan Tee!” William screams loudly as Oliver paces the small hotel room almost at his wits end.

“Buddy, Felicity isn’t here, we’ll see her in a few days.” Oliver promises. He bounces William in his arms offering him a bottle but William only pushes it away whining loudly before he starts calling out for Felicity yet again.

Oliver sighs deeply before he finally relents and pulls out his phone. He should have known William would ask for Felicity. All day William has been asking for Felicity, but the aquarium had thoroughly distracted him until now. It’s night time and there are only two things William needs in order to go to bed. His night time bottle of warm milk and Felicity.

Oliver has tried so hard to keep Felicity at a distance this past week, so that William won’t get hurt, but in the end he only hurt his son more by keeping them apart. Oliver feels like the worst parent ever.

“Tee?” William whimpers slapping the phone with his hand. “Tee?”

“Yea let’s call Tee and wish her goodnight, eh?” Oliver says softly right before he presses number one on his speed dial.

He wonders briefly if she would even answer, but that notion is short lived. Felicity picks up the call before the second ring. When her face comes into view and her voice echoes through the small speaker, Oliver is not ashamed to admit that William is not the only one to perk up at the familiar, comforting sound of her voice.

“Oliver? Is everything okay? Is William okay?” Felicity asks immediately, her voice sounding slightly panicked.

Oliver notices belatedly that William had his entire hand over the camera lens. He fixes the phone and smiles reassuringly at Felicity. But her eyes are still wide scanning his face as though she is making sure for herself that he is okay, which is an odd reaction to say the least. “We’re fine. Someone just wanted to tell you goodnight.”

“Tee!” William calls out eagerly, grabbing for the phone as Oliver tries to get them both in the frame. Eventually he gives up and let’s the toddler hold the phone.

“Hi, baby boy!” Felicity greets excitedly, Oliver can hear the way her voice slightly breaks at the greeting and it makes him hate himself even more.

“Tee! Hi! Hi! Hi!” William chirps excitedly bouncing in Oliver’s hands and he almost drops the phone, but Oliver anticipating that quickly catches it and turns it upright and William cheers excitedly on seeing Felicity.

“Oh, I miss you,” Felicity confesses softly.

“Wub ooh.” William echoes, his entire demeanour calming. He recently learned how to say ‘love you’ and he says it to them all the time. 

William gently caresses the screen and Oliver’s heart clenches at how sad his son looks. When he hears a soft sniffle from the phone, that pain only intensifies. He pulls back the phone to look at Felicity and he can see her trying to wipe away her tears.

“Will, did you see a lot of fishies today?” Felicity addresses the toddler, refusing to acknowledge Oliver’s concerned look.

“ ‘ark!” William perks up with a smile and then wiggles in Oliver’s arms. “Doo doo doo. ‘Ark! Doo doo.”

“Baby sharks too? Wow! That’s awesome, buddy.”

“Yea!” William agrees, nodding his head vigorously before he yawns widely.

“Oh my, someone’s tired. Now, don't give your Daddy trouble to go to sleep, okay?”

“Otay.” William parrots before he yawns yet again and Oliver is doubtful he actually understands.

Oliver gently eases himself into the bed, shifting so that he is leaning against the headboard. William is now tucked on his lap, whimpering for Felicity.

“I was thinking you could read his bedtime story while he has his milk? Help him settle in for the night?” Oliver offers tentatively.

William finally takes the bottle from Oliver, his eyes never wavering from Felicity’s image on the screen. He usually would hold the bottle himself, but instead he has one chubby hand on the phone gently hitting the image of Felicity.

“The whole point of this trip was so that you could spend time with him just the two of you,” Felicity points out weakly. She sends a little wave to William and the toddler smiles around his bottle in return. The entire exchange melts Oliver’s heart.

“Well, maybe I was wrong,” Oliver replies suddenly he can see Felicity immediately going on high alert.

“Oliver, there is something I need to tell…”

“Not about us,” Oliver cuts her off, clarifying immediately. She stops short but doesn’t continue, clearly waiting for him. “What I mean is, you and Will-” Oliver pauses to collect his thoughts, “trying to force you away from William was stupid and selfish. I know  _ we  _ agreed to keep our distance and keep this strictly platonic, but William shouldn’t have to suffer because of that.”

She does not respond right away, her eyes are fixated on William but her mind seems a million miles away.

“Felicity…”

She shakes her head seemingly pulling herself away from whatever thoughts that are occupying her mind. “Okay, thanks.”

“Felicity, is everything okay?” Oliver asks with concern.

“Yea, sorry. I just really missed him,” she confesses. She pulls a book from off screen and smiles warmly at William. “Ready to say goodnight, baby boy?”

“Night!” William parrots around his bottle before he settles back against Oliver’s chest, his eyes never leaving Felicity and vice versa.

_ “In the great green room _

_ There was a telephone, _

_ A red balloon, _

_ A picture of -“ _

Turns out William isn’t the only one that missed the sound of Felicity’s voice.

* * *

“Baby Girl! Oh My God! It’s really you!” Her mother all but yells at the screen, tears flowing down her cheeks and Felicity knows she’s not faring any better on seeing her mother’s familiar face.

“Hey, Mom,” Felicity greets warmly, getting choked up herself. It’s been so long since she’s heard her mother's voice and seen her smiling face.

“Oh,  _ Felicity, look _ at you,” Donna gushes through her tears. “You look well, baby girl. You grew out your hair and your cheeks are looking a little fuller. Are you finally eating right? It’s so good to see your face, baby girl.”

“I’m living with a master chef,” Felicity teases, deciding to keep things light and knowing that her mother would worry otherwise.

“ _ Oh,  _ a hot master chef?” Donna asks intrigued and that’s when Felicity realizes keeping things light is out of the question.

“Actually, I’m living with Oliver Queen...you remember him right?” She asks unnecessarily, her mother never forgets anyone, especially the first boy that Felicity loved.

“Oliver Queen?” Her mother practically shouts, her jaw dropping in surprise. “What? How? When? Felicity, honey, I thought you were working for the FBI? Isn’t that why I’ve been in Tallahassee all this time? What’s going on?”

“Okay, first off, I’m fine,” Felicity promises. She knew there was no easy lead into this, her mother has naturally been worried since she got arrested or longer, depending on how much of her father’s activities she was aware of. She goes into a brief explanation of how she ended up working for Oliver and pointedly ignores the visit she had yesterday from Amanda Waller,  _ that _ would definitely have her mother worried.

“Oliver Queen with a baby, oh wow.”

“Yea, he’s pretty cute,” Felicity gushes. She picks up the framed photograph of her, Oliver and William and shows it to her mother. “He’s almost 17 months and so smart. He can string two words to form a sentence, ask for things, although it’s more like demand. I taught him how to count in four different languages. He’s so smart.”

“Oh, he sounds like you when you were a baby. You started to talk before you were 1. My little genius.” Her mother grins proudly, lost in her memories and, for once, she is not embarrassed by her mother’s words. But she realizes that is exactly how  _ she _ sounds when she talks about William.

“So how long did it take you to realize you are in love with Oliver this time?” Her mother asks with a knowing grin. Before she can begin to protest, her mother quickly continues, “I know you, Felicity Megan. You would have never risked calling me like this if it was not something important. Talk to me, baby girl.”

Her mother’s comforting voice seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back and Felicity’s eyes suddenly begin to fill with tears. Her mother’s soft ‘Oh honey’ doing little to comfort her.

“It’s a mess,” Felicity confesses.

“Why? Because of how you left things when you were kids? Honey, if Oliver is still harbouring ill feelings towards you about that, he would have never hired you to take care of his son.” Her mother points out logically.

“It’s not that,” Felicity knows that there are things she and Oliver still have to discuss, Oliver’s hesitancy to take things any further attest to that, but no, Felicity’s current secret is what is eating away at her, “well, not  _ only _ that. I can’t get him involved in my  _ mess _ .”

“I think you’re wrong,” her mother says matter of factly.

“Mom…”

“No, hear me out.” Felicity sighs but nods in agreement, gesturing for her mother to continue, not that her mother would need her permission. “I know why you want to protect Oliver. It’s the same reason why we haven't spoken in over a year and our only points of contact are your cryptic emails you send every two months. I don't agree with all the secrecy, but I know that it puts your mind at ease knowing that I’m safe so I go along with it. But, honey, I think you need someone on your side and I think Oliver could be that person. Or, more importantly,  _ you _ want Oliver to be that person.”

“I can’t. I don’t want more people involved in this, and William… If anything were to happen…” Felicity takes a deep breath trying to catch herself.

“Honey, I think that is something Oliver should decide for himself. You have been down this road before with this boy, well, man now- you, my brilliant girl, you know what you need to do.”

Her mom’s right, she always knew what she needed to do. Waller setting a fixed deadline only solidified what she should have done weeks ago. She needs to tell Oliver everything, even if she risks the possibility of losing him and William.  _ Or _ she needs to bite the bullet and leave before either Oliver or William could get hurt.

“I miss you, Mom,” Felicity confesses softly. For almost 10 years it was the two of them against the world. When Felicity got her scholarship to MIT, it was her Mom that encouraged her to take it so far away. 

“I miss you too, honey. Don’t worry, soon you will help those suits, put Noah away and then I can come meet the two loves of your life.” Her Mom teases lightly.

Deciding to embrace this rare moment with her mom, Felicity decides to ignore her impending decision and instead show her mother what she has been up to lately, starting with more pictures of William.

* * *

It’s been three weeks since Oliver and William’s trip to Coast City and Felicity has yet to make a decision. To be fair, William recently started pre-school and they have all been trying to adjust to the new normal. He goes to preschool three times a week for a few hours, despite this, both he and Felicity have not adjusted well to it. It takes William a lot of time to let go of Felicity in the mornings. The first few mornings Oliver went with them, but eventually his work overlapped with the time and Felicity would usually take William.

The off time has finally allowed Felicity to spend more time working on finding her father and she feels as though she may finally catch a break. 

With that in the forefront of her brain she knows it’s time she talks to Oliver. He’s actually working from home today, City Hall was having some electrical issues at the moment and Oliver decided to let everyone go home for the rest of the week for it to be sorted out.

Today is the first time in almost a month since they slept together that they are alone without William. Oliver has been in his office most of the day and Felicity has been catching up with some movies.

She is just about to watch princess Mia fall into the fountain with Chris Pine when Oliver walks out of his office. He’s only dressed in a shirt with his sweats, finally taking her suggestion to not dress up completely in his own house.

“Hey, I ordered us some sushi from Ming’s. I got you the usual for us to share and extra dumplings.” Oliver greets. He stops short and looks at her with uncertainty, “if that’s okay.”

They aren’t very  _ good _ at this distancing thing they agreed on. It’s hard to switch off months of working like a well oiled machine. They order the same thing from Ming’s at least twice a month; just because they are trying this new distance thing doesn’t mean things in their everyday life will suddenly change.

“Pork dumplings?” Felicity asks automatically, it’s been a running joke for them since they were kids. Being Jewish, Felicity is technically not supposed to eat pork, something Oliver always teases her about.

Her words do have the desired effect and Oliver laughs, “yes, you heathen.”

Felicity tuts, the familiar banter easing the tension in her shoulders, but then they exchange soft smiles and they both seem to remember their current situation and the tension in the room increased tenfold.

“Felicity..”

“Oliver…”

They both laugh as they speak over each other, Oliver ever the gentleman gesture to Felicity to continue and she knows now is her moment. But before she could speak the doorbell rings.

“Oh, that’s the sushi. Hold that thought?” He asks her softly, not waiting for a response and he goes to the front door.

A few minutes later they are sitting shoulder to shoulder on the sofa, the coffee table littered with various types of sushi.

“Mmm, this never gets old.” Felicity says with a content sigh as she pops another roll into her mouth.

Oliver hums in agreement, his own mouth filled, after a few seconds though he looks at her tentatively, “there was something you wanted to tell me?”

Felicity stills, slowly chewing the piece of sushi more than she needs to as she gathers her thoughts. She has run out of excuses for not telling Oliver, now is the perfect opportunity. “Yes, it’s about my father.”

That certainly gets Oliver’s attention and she knows that he was not expecting that at all. She’s been very vague about her parents since coming back, only offering bare minimum, in fact, she basically avoided all talk of her father other than the fact that she and her mom left him and the UK two years after they left the States.

However, before she could go any further, her phone rings again. They both pause at the sound, Oliver is closest to her phone and he glances at it briefly before he gives it to her, his frown deepening, “it’s William’s school. I left my phone in the office.”

She can hear the worry in his tone and she places a hand on his arm, stopping his movements as she answers the phone, “Hello? Yes, this is Felicity. No...he is with me now. What? No, Moira or Thea Queen, those are the only other names on the list besides Oliver or myself….No. Where is William? Okay, thank you we will be there in five minutes.”

“Is William okay?” Oliver asks already on his feet.

“Yes, he’s fine.” Felicity promises, her brows wrinkling in thought as she tries to process the conversation she had. They quickly go about putting away the last of the sushi as they talk. “Ummm, they called because there is a woman at the school demanding to see William….she says she’s his mother.”

Oliver stops at her words, the chopsticks slipping from his fingers, “what? Are people targeting my son? I need to call John. He said that I should have a guy outside the preschool but I didn’t want to make other parents unease.”

Felicity follows him into the bedroom as he mumbles to himself, neither of them seeming to care as he quickly changes out of his sweats and into his jeans. “Did she give any information on who this woman is? Or did she just make that claim hoping the preschool would hand him over?”

“She said her name is Samantha Clayton.”

“ _ Oh.”  _ Oliver’s frantic demeanour immediately lessens and Felicity goes on high alert when he looks at her worriedly. “Samantha is William’s mother.”

_ Oh. _


	8. Chapter 8

“Remember what we talked about,” Felicity calls out calmly as they quickly make their way across the pre-school car park. “You will  _ talk _ to her.”

“She asked to see _my_ son. Demanding it as if she can just walk right up and take him. She won’t. He is _my_ son.” Oliver growls, his anger simmering yet again with each step he takes towards the school.

How dare Samantha do this?

“Four words, Felicity.  _ Four _ words. That’s all my son meant to her.” Oliver continues angrily, not waiting for Felicity to reply. “We raised him for three  _ weeks  _ together and then she just left without so much as a goodbye. She sent me a  _ text _ . ‘I can't do this’, that’s all William meant to her. Instead of talking to me, telling me what was going on with her, I could have helped her. I could have done  _ something _ , but she took that decision away from us and just  _ left _ .”

Oliver walks down the hallway towards the main office, completely ignoring Felicity’s words of reasoning. Samantha has no right to come to his son’s school to demand to see him. If she really wanted to see William she should have come to  _ him _ .

As he turns the corner, he stops short when he sees Samantha standing outside the office, her arms folded as she leans against the window, looking completely out of place. The uncertainty in her expression brings comfort to Oliver, as he was certain he was going to find her demanding things from him. Despite this, on seeing her for the first time in 20 months, Oliver finds his anger rising yet again with every step he takes towards her.

“What the hell are you doing here, Samantha?” Oliver all but growls once ignoring Felicity’s soft warning tones behind him. “You have no right to come here.”

“Oliver…”

“If you wanted to see William you should have come to me,” Oliver continues. His fingers twitch nervously at his side as he tries to calm himself down. “My number has not changed in the past 20 months and you certainly remembered it the last time we spoke.”

_ “Oliver.”  _ Felicity lays a hand on his shoulder, her calm voice centering him. He takes a deep breath and looks at Samantha expectantly, but the other woman is looking at  _ Felicity _ with an unreadable expression that gets on his nerves.

“Samantha, what do you want?” Oliver snaps, having little patience to beat around the bush much less make small talk with the woman.

“I want to see William.”

“No.” 

His response is automatic. He  _ knows _ why she’s here but he doesn’t want to hear any of it. He feels Felicity’s fingers curl into the sleeve of his shirt and he takes a deep calming breath.

“I have the right to see my son, Oliver.” Samantha snaps back angrily.

“You gave up that right to see  _ my _ son, when you left!” Oliver growls angrily. “Regardless, you should have come to  _ me _ and not accosted William’s teachers to see him.”

“I hardly  _ accosted  _ anyone.” Samantha grumbles. Oliver can see the fight in her slowly diminishing, not that his own defenses lowered. “I wanted to see him and I knew you would have said no.”

“That doesn’t make it okay!” Oliver roars at her audacity.

Samantha scowls about to reply, but Felicity suddenly steps between the pair and looks at Samantha warning, “I think you should leave.”

“Who the hell are you?” 

Oliver can see a few of the staff slowly coming out from the office, how they had not heard them early is beyond him. 

“This is Felicity,” Oliver snaps back defensively. “My fiancé.” 

“Your  _ fiancé _ ?” Samantha repeats incredulously her eyes never leaving Felicity. 

Oliver can feel Felicity tense but all she does is take a step back to stand next to him, her eyes moving from Samantha to a few of the staff members whose eyes are wide and alert from that particular revelation.

“Yes, we haven’t released a statement yet, preferring to keep things on the downlow.” Felicity chimes in picking up effortlessly. She slides her fingers down to Oliver’s wrist and interlocks them with his own standing tall. 

Samantha falters slightly, but then turns her attention back to Oliver. “I would like to see William. I am his mother and I deserve to see him.”

“This is not the place to discuss this,” Felicity replies calmly before Oliver can snap back, her fingernails digging into Oliver’s skin. She is fully aware of how close he is to losing it which will do no one any favours. 

“I suggest you get a lawyer Samantha, because I suspect the only way you will be seeing William is after Oliver’s lawyers contact you. Please leave, before we are forced to call security.”

Samantha splutters incredulously at Felicity’s words then looks at Oliver expectantly. “My lawyers will call your lawyers, next week. You know if you decide to stick around in Starling this time. Please don’t make me call security.”

Oliver looks over her shoulder and sure enough Diggle is standing at the entrance with his arms crossed waiting for Oliver to give him the signal.

Samantha looks at Oliver and Felicity, then back to the numerous staff members who have been blatantly watching the exchange. There are a few little hands on the window and curious little eyes staring back at them but luckily the children can’t hear the exchange and most importantly William is nowhere in the vicinity. 

Samantha takes one final glance at their small audience and walks away without a word.

Oliver feels a gentle squeeze of his fingers and he looks down at Felicity who is smiling at him encouragingly. “It’s gonna be okay.”

But is it?

* * *

_ “Why?” Oliver practically whines as he plops onto Felicity’s bed, his blue eyes staring back at her pleadingly. _

_ "You know why,” Felicity remarks with an eye roll, she will not let those baby blues get the best of her again. She tosses some outfits on her bed, and moves back to her chest of drawers, “I need to work to save up for MIT, and typically I’m against nepotism, but 15 year olds don’t get opportunities like this and I’m forever grateful that your Mom is letting me shadow Dr. Wells for the summer.” _

_ “But when will we hang out then?” Oliver whines again, this time he grabs a hold of her hand and tugs her onto her bed, or more specifically on top of him. He smirks up at her, both hands moving to her waist, “We’re supposed to hang out this summer. I had a lot of plans.” _

_ “I bet you did,” Felicity remarks sarcastically, as Oliver’s fingers gently tease the hem of her dress, slipping under the material. She doesn’t exactly stop his ministrations, but she doesn’t exactly encourage it, either. Then again, she’s pretty sure her not stopping him is all the encouragement he needs anyway. _

_ Oliver surprises her, by removing his hands from under her skirt, and looks at her seriously, “You know this thing between the two of us is more than just a physical thing, right? You mean more to me than that, Felicity.” _

_ Damn this silly boy and his words, always turning her into a puddle of goo. She always promised herself she would not be that girl, and yet here she is swooning over some boy.  _

_ Except he’s not just some boy. He’s Oliver, her best friend for 5 years. _

_ “I know,” she cups his chin and smiles down at him, her curly brown hair forming a curtain over their faces. She smiles softly when Oliver gently nuzzles her hand, “I want to spend time with you too. You can pick me up after work...or you can take up your mother’s office and shadow _ her…”

_ "If I work at QC, will we be able to hang out?” Oliver asks her bluntly, his fingers now carding through her hair. _

_ “We can have lunch,” Felicity replies knowing fully well that is not what Oliver has in mind. _

_ Oliver looks at her for a second and then hooks his arms around her waist and flips them over directly onto her pile of clothes. He smirks down at her before he lowers his head to hers and kisses her heatedly, “Nope. Not good enough.” _

_ "I refuse to encourage your delinquency,” Felicity protests weakly against his lips, her fingers curling into his t-shirt and her hips moving at their own accord. _

_ “Your lips say no, but your hips tell a different story,” Oliver rocks his own hips to emphasize his point and his smirk deepens at the soft moan that escapes her lips. _

_ Damn her traitorous body, and damn him too.  _

_ He goes to lean down to kiss her again but she raises her hand so that his lips land squarely on her hand. She has to bite back a giggle at his crestfallen expression, “You can pick me up after work and then we can hang out. Take it or leave it, Queen.” _

_ Oliver growls, this time taking both her hands and holding them over his head, “You know I won’t say no to hanging out with you.” _

_ “I do,” Felicity remarks cheekily, she raises her head and kisses him briefly, “that’s why I lo...like you.” _

_ They both freeze at her words, both knowing exactly what she was about to say. Oliver’s hold on her wrist loosening, his lips slightly parted in surprise. She takes his shock to grab him by the waist and roll them over so that she is once again straddling his lap. The fact that she was able to overpower him so easily going to show how much she surprised him.  _

_ They have been dating for two weeks, it’s way too soon to bring up the L word. Her lack of a brain to mouth filter once again getting her in trouble. _

_ She uses his surprise to her advantage, and lowers her head to kiss him, and sure enough he responds eagerly in response, effectively easing the tension. _

_ They kiss lazily for a few minutes, this time when Oliver’s hand wanders under her dress, she does stop him and rolls off of him much to both their displeasure. She pats him on the stomach, and he lets her tug him to a sitting position, they are both still breathing heavily, their cheeks stained red, “Help me choose my outfit for work tomorrow?” _

_ Oliver runs his fingers through his hair, trying to catch his breath, along with other parts of his anatomy. He closes his eyes briefly and Felicity looks away to give him some privacy, “Sure, what does the nerd squad wear to computer labs?” _

_ His teasing words effectively diffuse the tension and they both laugh when one of her shirts smacks him in the face. “Seriously, I think you can wear jeans and a shirt, you don’t have to wear a blazer and stuff like what my Mom wears.” _

_ “My Dad says I should make a good first impression,” Felicity explains her forehead wrinkling as she looks at her clothes thoughtfully. Years of pointedly ignoring her mother’s suggestion of dressing like ‘a girl’ is coming back to bite her in the ass. _

_ “Oh, that’s right your Dad is coming to work on QC servers tomorrow as well. Mom mentioned it at dinner last night.” Oliver says thoughtfully. “I’m glad he’s gonna be working there, so you don’t have to take the bus all that way so early in the morning.” _

_ “Yea, that worked out for me,” Felicity remarks, not bothering to voice that she was not too fond of the idea of taking the bus into the city at 6 am. “ He’s pretty excited about it, he’s been in his office all weekend, we haven’t seen him for a few days. He only gets like that when he hits some breakthrough.” _

_ Oliver nods and tosses one of her tank tops to the no pile and huffs, “who cares what you wear, the moment you open your mouth and show that dumb guy that you know more about computers than he does, he would not care if you’re dressed in a unicron onesie.” _

_ “Harrison Wells is not dumb. He has two PhDs, I am definitely not smarter than him,” Felicity protests, her cheeks red from his praise. _

_ “Eh, I still think you’re smarter than him.” Oliver remarks nonchalant.  _ _ He was always her biggest fan. _

* * *

“Why are you so calm about this?” Oliver paces his mother’s living room looking at her incredulously. 

“The woman has no case.” Moira remarks calmly. She sits back against the couch and looks at Oliver without a hint of worry. Felicity wishes she had even an ounce of confidence the older woman has, cause she is currently trying her best to not freak out. “you don’t abandon your infant son and not suffer consequences.”

“She’s still his mother,” Oliver points out begrudgingly.

“Who gave up her rights the moment she sent you that text message.” Moira counters as she pulls a large folder from under her lap. Felicity hardly thinks a text message of a woman in distress would hardly count as evidence, but not like she will voice  _ that _ particular opinion to Moira.

“I’m not sure a four word text that I deleted  _ months _ ago is going to convince a judge, Mom.” Oliver replies tiredly. He stops short when he turns around to see his mother casually flipping through endless papers on her lap. “Mom?”

“Your word alone may not hold up, but these numerous messages from Samantha insisting she was not coming back and travelling all over the world, only backs up that claim.”

“Mom! You hired someone to follow Samantha?” Oliver growls angrily and he takes the papers flipping through them, “I told you to leave it alone! Leave  _ her _ alone. You  _ stalking  _ William’s mother is hardly going to do me any favours in court.”

“Oh relax, I was hardly stalking her,” Moira remarks flippantly, “I kept tabs on her whereabouts over the last year in  _ slight _ chance she decided she wanted to be in my grandson’s life. There would be a cold day in hell before I let that happen.”

Felicity’s blood runs cold at the older woman’s words. Moira’s threat isn't even  _ directed  _ at her yet her stomach turns at the thought. She always knew Moira Queen was a force to be recon with. You do not build an  _ empire _ without making enemies. As Oliver flips through the  _ numerous  _ papers in his lap, information that his mother no doubt spent  _ months _ gathering, and under different circumstances Felicity would even feel sorry for Samantha. Except, all Felicity can think about are her  _ own _ secrets and she can’t help but wonder if  _ this _ was the root of Moira’s animosity towards her over the last few months.

She licks her lips nervously, she tears her gaze away from Oliver, but stops short when she sees  _ Moira _ staring back at her, giving her a calculated look, making the hairs at the back of Felicity’s neck stand on edge. 

“Oliver, why don’t you go to my office. Call Jean, talk to her about Samantha and see what your next steps are. I personally do not think you have anything to worry about, but I know you need to hear it from your lawyers,” Moira remarks calmly, her eyes never leaving Felicity. 

Oliver nods but does not leave, but instead looks at Felicity for advice. Felicity can still feel Moira’s eyes boring into her. “Your Mom’s right, we both know you need all the facts before you can make your next steps and you won’t feel at ease until you know legally no one can take William away from you. Call your lawyers, I’ll check on William.”

Oliver looks down at the paper on his lap and sighs deeply as he gets to his feet. Both Felicity and Moira watch him walk out of the living room, the moment she turns the corner Moira turns to Felicity, her eyes narrowing. “Alright Ms. Smoak, I was going to just let this babysitting stint run its course. For my son to get you out of his system, but it appears not only is that not happening any time soon, but things have changed. Samantha Clayton is a variable I have no control over, but  _ you _ , I do. You need to leave. I know you care for my son and grandson, and we both know that Oliver’s integrity as a father is going to be challenged and him hiring a criminal on the run to take after his son is not doing him any favours.”

Felicity gives Moira an equally calculated look, she’s not surprised Moira knows, she has had her suspicions for months now. Moira takes her silence for something else completely and continues on, “I still haven’t figured out what exactly you want with my family, I’m inclined to believe it has something to do with Oliver’s current position as mayor. But, I have been fooled by your father once, I will not let history repeat itself. Not when this could cost me my grandson.”

This time Felicity can’t hide her shock if she tried, “what are you talking about?”

“Don’t play me for a fool, Felicity.” Moira replies calmly.

“What do you know about my father?” Felicity counters her heart hammering in her chest.

“You really don’t know.” When Felicity growls in annoyance, Moira only chuckles lightly which only seems to anger Felicity more. “A few decades ago, one of QC terminal servers was under a cyber attack, I spoke to your father about it given his background and he offered to increase the security. Naively, I agreed to let him work on the servers and manage the digital security for the company. Except for a few weeks one of my IT managers noticed a breach. Your father had been stealing from me right under my nose.”

At this point her revelation is not surprising to Felicity, she’s learned over the years exactly what he is capable of. But it begs the question why did no one know about any of this. Felicity licks her lips nervously, “Why… why didn’t you call the cops?”

Moira sighs as she takes a seat on the sofa her eyes now trained on Felicity, her features softening, “because of you.”

“Me?”

“You were like another daughter to me, for many years Felicity.” Moira explains softly, “you meant too much to Oliver. I told your father to give back everything he took, that I would not call the cops if he did it. But when he still refused I threatened to call the cops. I had no intention on calling them, but less than a week later Oliver came to me in tears that you and your family moved to the UK.”

“He told us he got an amazing job opportunity and we had to leave right away.” Felicity explains, “I’m sure we both know that there was no job opportunity he was on the run in the US and tried to build his organization in the UK until he got caught there as well.”

Moira nods, “I tried to tell your mother…”

“My mother likes to think the best of people, especially my father, in the end we both learned the truth and moved back here a few years later.” Felicity explains, she sighs deeply, knowing what she has to do. “Not that it matters. I know you did your homework, I suspected you knew about my past, but you don’t have to worry, I’m leaving. My being here, my father’s past, my  _ past _ can cost Oliver his son and I won’t allow that. It’s best for everyone.”

Felicity wipes her eyes, willing herself not to cry, she knew it would come to this eventually, naively she thought she had time.

“I thought it would have taken more to convince you,” Moira says thoughtfully, clearly looking at Felicity in a different light. “What I never understood was  _ how _ did you end up in this job if you are on the run.”

“I’m not on the run,” Felicity explains. She realizes now it makes no sense hiding things from Moira, besides she’s going to explain all this to Oliver before she leaves anyway. One thing she and Moira can agree on is that she refuses to let history repeat itself. “I’m working with the FBI to find my father, in order to clear my name for a crime I did not commit. It’s a long story but I’m looking for my father and  _ his _ company. If I don’t find him and  _ soon _ I will be taken back into custody.”

“Helix.”

“You know about Helix?” Felicity’s heart hammers rapidly in her chest. Her father’s organization is practically a ghost, if Moira knows about Helix, she could be the key to finding Felicity’s father, the key to her freedom.

“Yes, when you and your family disappeared, I hired someone to look deep into your father and exactly what he needed from QC. After numerous dead ends, the PI stumbled upon Helix. There wasn’t much information about it. Nothing on paper at least, but I found out enough to know that he was behind it.” Moira explains her eyes trained on Felicity, with an unreadable expression. 

“Yes, my father didn’t believe in paper, not to mention digital trails” Felicity remarks dryly, her own frustration in her inability to find him coming to the forefront of her mind yet again.

“Mmm,” Moira hums in acknowledgement, but Felicity can practically see the gears turning in the older woman’s mind and Felicity is honestly afraid of what she would say next. It’s obvious to the both of them that Moira holds all the cards here. Felicity has shown her cards, she  _ knows _ that Felicity would do anything to protect Oliver and William. “I want you to marry my son.”

_ What _ ?

“I’m sorry...you want me to what now?” Felicity splutters  _ definitely  _ not expect that of all things. “ _ Marry Oliver? _ You just ordered me to leave and you want me to  _ marry _ him?”

“It’s clear your current criminal record is not public knowledge otherwise you would have never been allowed on a nanny agency of all things. I hired the best people to look into your past, and all I got was that you took a leave of absence in your senior year at MIT. I’m confident your secrets are safe.So, if you marry Oliver, he has a better chance, a stronger  _ case _ to keep his son. Oliver is the mayor of Starling, he works long hours and travels a lot for his job. Samantha is a teacher that works an 8 to 3 job and has summers off. On paper she can provide a more stable environment for a child, yes she walked away and that will work against her but the court’s like to give people second chances.  _ However,  _ if you marry my son it gives Oliver a great advantage.”

Felicity doubts  _ lying _ to the court is the best way to approach this, add to the fact that she has less than two weeks to find her father before she will be taken away for  _ good _ . None of this is a solid plan. 

“Would it really be so bad if she is in William’s life? Doesn’t he deserve to get to know his mother, especially if she actually wants to be in his life?” Felicity asks, despite the bitter taste it leaves in her mouth. 

“I am as convinced as you are, that Samantha has had a change of heart,” Moira remarks dryly. “I don’t know the woman and I don’t trust her. I can’t guarantee that she wouldn’t pick up and leave again and this time  _ with _ my grandson and I refuse to take that chance. I’m also pretty sure you wouldn’t want to take that chance either.”

She’s right. It all seems a bit far fetched, a bit of a stretch, worst case scenario at best, but then Felicity does not know Samantha, none of them do. They don’t know what she has planned, and if there is even a possibility that she is capable of what Moira is insinuating, then she’s right, Felicity is not willing to take that chance on William.

“You do this. You marry my son and I will give you all the information I have on Helix and your father.” Moira bargains. “My only stipulation is you do  _ not  _ tell Oliver any of this, about your father or the FBI.

It’s hardly an ultimatum, in fact it’s a win-win situation for Felicity, she gets the information she needs and hopefully clears her name and she can stay in Oliver and William’s life. 

The only problem is, this is  _ not _ how she imagined marrying Oliver. Not like this, not under the disguise of a lie, she promised herself she would do things different this time around.

Before she can reply, Oliver comes walking into the living room looking frazzled and upset.

“Jean says Samantha could have a shot of getting custody of William. Worst case scenario, we would have shared custody.” Oliver says with defeat.

“Oh, Oliver,” Felicity calls out sympathetically. She takes two strides towards him and engulfs him in a hug, Oliver collapsing on her almost immediately.

“Felicity and I have come up with a way to get you to keep your son,” Moira says matter of factly. “You two are going to get married.”


	9. Chapter 9

He’s gonna marry Felicity.

_ Correction _ . He has to marry Felicity, so that he can keep his son.

He should be happy, it’s the best of both worlds, he gets to keep the two of the most important people  _ in _ his life. Except it’s all under a ruse and he and Felicity are not getting married because they are in love.

This is not how it’s supposed to be. 

He can’t go through with it. He can’t marry Felicity.

Except, he  _ has _ to marry Felicity in order to keep his son.

Well he doesn’t  _ have  _ to but his mother and his lawyer did both agree it would give him an advantage over Samantha.

“You haven’t said anything since we got home,” Felicity calls out softly pulling Oliver from his thoughts. 

She’s sitting crossed leg on the floor William lounging on her lap as he watches TV. He has a bottle in his hand and his little eyes are dropping as he fights the exhaustion.

Since their trip, William has been clinging to Felicity more than normal, as if the toddler has sensed something has changed. He is completely unaware of what transpired today, but has refused to let go of Felicity all day. 

Oliver wonders if the toddler is more aware of what’s going on than they give him credit for. 

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this for me,” Oliver replies with a sigh.

“Is it something you want?” Felicity counters. Oliver’s head flies up at the implications. Does he want to marry her for  _ real _ ? “I mean to keep William, do you think we’re jumping the gun here?  _ Is _ Samantha a flight risk?”

_ Oh _ . Of course that’s what she’s talking about.  _ William _ is the important thing here. He should be Oliver’s  _ only _ concern. Not the implications of marrying Felicity.

Except, a little over a month ago he and Felicity slept together and turned his world upside down. They agreed to keep things strictly platonic, and for the most part it’s been working, but blurring the lines even more is  _ not _ conducive to keeping things platonic.

“Whether or not she is a flight risk. Are we willing to take that chance?” Felicity continues as she paces their living room anxiously. She places William on the floor and the toddler walks off to some of his toys. She turns to Oliver and looks at him sheepishly, “I mean are  _ you?” _

“This is our decision, Felicity. Especially now that you’ve agreed to marry me.” Oliver replies truthfully.

“Oh no, I couldn’t...I wouldn't… I didn’t mean to imply.” Felicity stutters over her words, coming to a halt in front of Oliver. “That was  _ never  _ my intent.”

“Felicity, you’re agreeing to marry me, to protect my son,” Oliver says softly. He takes her hand and tugs her onto the couch next to him. Their knees touch as they face each other, Felicity’s hand in his, resting on his thigh. “There will be an us no matter what. Are you sure about this?”

“Are you?” Felicity counters and Oliver hated when they did this as kids, avoiding the topic at hand, they can’t afford to go into this with any misunderstandings. 

“I don’t want you to feel like this is something you  _ have _ to do,” Oliver replies honestly. “I love that you are willing to do just about anything for William, but I don’t not want you to give up your life for us. We both know you’re meant for bigger things than just being my nanny.”

“Oliver, I’m not marrying the  _ idea _ of being your nanny for the rest of our lives.” Felicity reminds him gently, but her implications are clear. She wants to do this for William, and for him. “I’ll always want to be in your and William’s lives, nanny or not. What I mean is a piece of paper won’t change anything.”

Except they will be  _ married _ and they both know that will change  _ everything _ whether they are willing to admit it to themselves or not.

“I mean we already live together.” Felicity continues, she releases her hold on Oliver’s hand and starts pacing again. “It’s more like a formality, for the courts, you know?”

_ Right.  _ Of course, it has to be about William.

“Right, nothing has to change unless we want it to.” Oliver confirms.

Felicity freezes in her stop and looks at him with an unreadable expression, “Right, and nothing is going to change, not beyond these four walls. It’s all a ruse anyway.”

“Felicity…”

“I know there are more things we need to discuss, about this marriage. What exactly your lawyers expect of me, of us. Things I need to tell you,” Felicity says suddenly, “but I think I just need a night to process things. Your Mom said she will be by tomorrow to help us right?”

“Yes, but... Felicity…”

“Okay, goodnight, Oliver.”

She walks off leaving Oliver slightly confused and speechless.

“Night, Night, Tee!” William chirps from on the floor waving at her retreating form before turning his focus back on his toys. 

At least one of them is not worried about Felicity’s sudden departure.

* * *

_ “Why are you following me?” Eleven year old Oliver grumbles as he tries to pick up his pace but Felicity is hot on his heels. _

_ “Did you not hear anything Ms. Robinson said?” Felicity asks breathlessly as she tries to keep up with him. _

_ “No, because I knew you were taking down notes for both of us,” Oliver quips knowing it would annoy her. _

_ “Oliver, we have to get married! And plan our life together!” _

_ “I can’t get married today. I have baseball practice this afternoon.” Oliver replies easily, knowing it will only anger her more. _

_ “Oliver!” Felicity all but yells impatiently. _

_ Oliver sighs dramatically and gestures to her to follow him, not that she needs the invitation as she’s been following him around campus for the past 15 minutes. “C’mon we can go back to my house and plan the funeral and then my driver can drop you home before I go to practice.” _

_ “It’s not a funeral!” Felicity grumbles half heartedly. _

_ Oliver only turns to her and grins as he opens the car door for her. Felicity huffs but slides into the backseat of the car nonetheless.  _

_ “Hi, Mike!” Felicity greets Oliver’s driver.  _

_ “Hi, Miss Felicity, are you here to keep Mr. Oliver out of trouble?” _

_ “There isn’t enough time in the day,” Felicity quips back easily to Oliver’s driver much to Oliver's annoyance. _

_ “That’s why she wants to marry me, today.” Oliver fires back. _

_ “You kids are getting married already? Back in my day they waited till we were at least in high school,” Mike replies teasingly at which Felicity only giggles. _

_ “It’s 30% of our grade and Oliver wants us to do everything before baseball practice. We have to plan the wedding, pick a name for the baby and everything!” Felicity grumbles. _

_ “Well she certainly sounds like your wife, Oliver.” _

_ Both Felicity and Oliver frown in confusion, the older man’s words going over their heads, but Oliver turns his focus back on Felicity. “What wedding? We are just gonna write a paper and take turns looking after the egg!” _

_ “We get points for creativity Oliver! We can’t just write a paper.” Felicity protests, “we have to do something different!” _

_ “Fine. Then we will take Thea to the presentation and say we took care of a real baby.” Oliver says simply. _

_ “Oliver, your mom is not going to let us use your baby sister for our project.” Felicity remarks in exasperation as she follows Oliver out of the car. She stops to thank Mike and wave at him before she quickly follows Oliver up the pathway to his house. _

_ “But she will let me marry you?” Oliver remarks sarcastically, being deliberately obtuse. “My mom won’t even let me be outside after the sun sets.” _

_ “Oliver.” Felicity whines and when her voice goes to that specific high pitch level Oliver knows she’s losing patience with him. _

_ “Alright come on let’s plan out the project.” _

_ Fifteen minutes later Felicity is standing in an old white t-shirt that belonged to Oliver’s Mom, tied at the waist with her shoe lace and she’s holding some roses from Oliver’s Mom garden. She stomps her foot and glares at Oliver. “Would you stop whining and put on your tux!” _

_ “No! I hate that thing! it's itchy and stuffy. We aren’t getting married for real, Felicity! Why are we dressing up?” _

_ “We get extra credit for creativity!” Felicity repeats for the millionth time. _

_ “No one is here! We can just write down that we did it in the family album thingy.” Oliver insists, he gestures to the notebook they have been using to record their ‘family milestones’.  _

_ “It’s an album Oliver! We have to take a picture! Why are you being so difficult?” _

_ “Why are you being so annoying? I’m not wearing the stupid tux!” _

_ “Fine then we will take a picture together with you wearing your stupid batman pajamas.” Felicity snaps as she grabs the camera from the bed.  _

_ When Oliver takes a step away from her, his eyes narrowing at the camera. “Why do we have to take a picture at all?” _

_ “Do you not listen?” Felicity grumbles. “You know if my A was not dependent on your stupid face I would take care of Beatrice on my own and get my A all but myself.” _

_ “ _ **_Beatrice?_ ** _ We are not calling the egg that!” Oliver tosses the album to the side and scowls at Felicity. “I changed my mind. I don’t want to marry you anymore. You’re too bossy and annoying!” _

_ “Fine! I don’t want to marry you either! No one can pay me enough to marry you, Oliver Queen!” _

_ “Fine!” _

_ “Fine!” _

* * *

“Are you sure everything is okay?” Oliver asks again with concern.

It’s early the next morning and they are going through their typical routine of getting ready for the day, but Felicity has yet to talk to Oliver and he’s picked up on her silence immediately.

Granted he thinks that she does not want to marry him, when the reality is she’s afraid to tell him about the FBI afraid that he will not want to marry  _ her _ .

She’s being a coward, she knows it and what’s more it’s putting them both at unease and William is starting to pick up on it.

“Let’s talk after breakfast?” Felicity offers tentatively.

“Okay,” Oliver nods in agreement. 

They both move around each other with practice ease, tending to William as they go neither of them missing a beat. 

Almost an hour later, Felicity takes the very last sip of her coffee and places it on the table in front her. She takes a deep breath and turns to face Oliver who has been silently watching her for the past few minutes nursing his own empty cup of coffee.

“Oliver…”

“Felicity…”

They both laugh uncomfortably and Oliver gestures to Felicity, “you go first.”

Felicity licks her lips nervously and nods her head in thanks, “Oliver, there is something I need to tell you, about my past before we can move forward with this marriage.”

She can see that he is immediately on high alert. She hates that she has to drop yet another bomb on him, but at this point it’s unavoidable.

“You’re not going to tell me you’re already married right?” Oliver jokes, easing the tension.

“No, I’m pretty sure the only person I’ve been married to was  _ you _ in 5th grade.” Felicity reminds him with a teasing smile.

“Oh wow I forgot about that,” Oliver says with awe, “but I’m pretty sure you said no one could pay you enough to marry me.”

Oh that’s right, she did say that. She was a feisty little drama queen as a kid.

“Don’t worry, your mother didn’t offer me any money to marry you.” Felicity jokes lightly, although part of her suspects if Oliver didn’t interrupt them her mother may have just been ready to issue her a cheque. Moira already thinks Felicity is only marrying Oliver to get information on her father. Moira Queen only  _ thinks _ she has control over this situation but Felicity is tired of letting people take control of her life.

“Felicity, you’re stalling.” Oliver reminds her gently.

He’s right, she is, but she’s terrified of opening up this can of worms and what his reaction will be.

“Oliver, I…”

But whatever she is about to say is drowned out by the front door slamming open and multiple people walking, Moira leading the way. 

“Can you put the largest one over the fireplace? Anything you take down we will put in the spare bedroom.

_ Spare bedroom _ ? It’s a three bedroom apartment. There is no spare bedroom.

“Mom, what the hell is going on?” Oliver exclaims. He is about to scoop William up but Moira steps in and raises William up and out of the way. Just as various workmen begin to rearrange some of the furniture or more specifically the pictures adorning their apartment. 

“Felicity, still lives here like a guest. We need to change that,” Moira says matter of factly. “If people are to believe the two of you are getting married, your apartment needs to reflect that.”

“Mom, we are not inviting  _ people _ , into our apartment,” Oliver grumbles, “And Felicity knows this apartment is as much hers as it is mine. She has her things everywhere.”

Felicity grunts at the slight jab, she might be a tad bit messy, but Oliver is a tad bit anal when it comes to keeping order in the apartment. Which quite frankly with a toddler is a pointless pursuit.

“Yes, well I thought it needed a little sprucing up. Felicity’s things need to be moved into your bedroom,” Moira continues easily as she begins to walk towards the bedrooms and Oliver and Felicity have no choice but to follow her.

“Mom! What are you doing? We aren’t going to move Felicity’s things into my bedroom; she needs to have her own space,” Oliver protests as he follows behind her. William thinks it’s all a game and waves excited at his father.

Felicity can only stand in the hallway watching on mutely as Moira gets one of the workmen to take her large canvas of a puppy and move it into Oliver’s bedroom.

“When you invite social workers into your home, the first thing they will be checking your bedroom to make sure nothing is amiss,” Moira points out. She stands at the foot of Oliver’s bedroom and points to the wall above the dressing table. “Don't give me that Oliver, they will need to survey the  _ entire  _ apartment, that includes all the bedrooms and if it looks like Felicity has her own bedroom it will raise flags. Put the wedding photo there.”

_ What wedding photo _ ? Oliver looks as confused as Felicity feels, but when she finally gets a glimpse of said “wedding photo” Felicity can’t help but laugh at the picture of their 11 year old selves on the day of their “first” wedding. Felicity is grinning broadly and Oliver looks like he would rather be anywhere but there.

“Oh my,” Felicity can’t help but giggle the ridiculousness of all this getting to her.

“Mom, where did you even find that?” Oliver asks one exasperation. He takes a seat at the foot of his bed clearly deciding to give up on stopping his mother.

Honestly, at this point Felicity thinks it would be futile to stop the bulldozer that is Moira Queen. She takes a seat next to Oliver and they watch on silently as half of her things are moved into  _ Oliver’s  _ bedroom. William has since crawled onto Felicity’s lap and is always watching the workmen in equal fascination.

“I went into your bedroom at the manor and found your Felicity box and decided to put all these photos to good use.” Moira says easily as she begins to pin Polaroids along the large vanity mirror.

At the word ‘Felicity box’ she looks across at Oliver to see his ears are pink and he’s pointedly not looking at her.

“You two have so many memories, it’s time to take it out of the box, so to speak.” Moira says looking at a picture fondly. She holds it up to show them at their winter formal. “You two grew up together, it’s part of your history. Your home should show that.”

Moira is not wrong, but it would be nice if she and Oliver would have gotten a say on what pictures they put in their own apartment.

Felicity looks across at Oliver to see that he’s lost in thought, his eyes trained on the picture in front of him. As great as things were when they were kids it only reminds Felicity about how badly things ended. How badly  _ she _ dealt with things and just how much she hurt Oliver in the process. Yes they were only kids, but she was mature enough, no she was smart enough to know that how she handled things was wrong and Oliver deserved better. She could have found a way. Which is why she  _ needs _ to tell him everything about the FBI , Amanda Waller and Cooper.

“Besides it will do great to convince any social worker that you two clearly have a history and this marriage did not come out of nowhere,” Moira says matter of factly, bringing Felicity abruptly back to the present. “Cause the mayor suddenly marrying his nanny is going to throw up many many red flags.”

“An engagement while surprising is not going to raise red flags, Mom.” Oliver replies, “no one even knows Felicity is my nanny.”

“Of course they do, you two are fooling yourselves if you think no one knows who Felicity Smoak is. They may not know your name, but they know your face and that you take care of William.” Moira says and she gives Felicity a loaded look, and Felicity knows that ‘they’ are not just the citizens of Starling city. Felicity was naive to think otherwise. “Not that it matters, there isn’t going to be an engagement anyway. You’ll be announcing the marriage.”

“Wait what? Mom we agreed we would get married on our terms. We announce the engagement then get married at a later date!” Oliver protests rising to his feet and depositing William onto Felicity’s lap. The toddler has been uncharacteristically quiet through this entire exchange only watching the adults with rapid attention.

“I decided that you can’t waste time on this. We have no clue what Samantha has planned. It’s best to get married right away before she can poke holes in  _ our _ plans. Harder to dispute legal papers.” 

“ _ You _ decided? You decided?” Oliver looks at his mother incredulously, “Mom, we agreed your  _ suggestion  _ was the best course of action but  _ Felicity _ and I will decide when we get married.”

“I’m sorry, Oliver.” Felicity doubts she is. “But I can’t let you kids waffle on this. I know how lawyers work and precious time is wasted announcing an engagement then getting married. You two have to do this now before this thing begins to unravel and you lose your son forever.”

“And you don’t think that Felicity and I getting married less than 24 hours after Samantha shows up isn’t sending off alarm bells on its own?” Oliver counters, but Felicity can see Moira’s words have gotten to him, his resolve is breaking and at this point he is only asking questions he thinks he should.

“No, I think two high school sweethearts rekindling their love and then deciding to get married because they no longer want to waste anymore time is a beautiful love story that no one would question.”

_ Oh _ . 

In another lifetime it could have been exactly that. Felicity turns to look at Oliver and this time their eyes do meet and she can see that he’s thinking the same thing.

That’s how their story  _ should  _ have gone, not like this.

“Which is why I have the manor currently being prepped for a small ceremony that will take place tomorrow night,” Moira continues, completely unaware of their inner turmoil.

“What?  _ Tomorrow?”  _ Oliver tears his gaze away from Felicity to look at his mother incredulously. “Mom, that’s too short of notice! You can’t just decorate your house and  _ invite _ us to our own wedding! Besides we weren’t even gonna do a wedding we were just going to the courthouse.”

“We were?” Felicity can’t help but ask, speaking for the first time since seeing their wedding photo from when they were kids. They never got around to discussing any of this.

“I figured you wouldn’t want the fuss,” Oliver says sheepishly, or they wouldn’t want this thing to seem more real than it has to be.

“Nonsense! Every woman deserves the perfect wedding,” Moira admonishes. She’s not wrong but this is hardly ideal. At this point Felicity wonders if Oliver even wants to marry her or it’s all just a convenience to keep his son.

Not that it should matter,  _ William  _ is top priority, he should be their  _ only _ concern. Felicity can tuck away her feelings for Oliver and how  _ marrying _ him will affect her for another time.

“But we don’t have time to invite anyone,” Felicity voices and all she can think is that she can’t get married without her mother, without Iris. 

Fake or not, she will be  _ legally _ married and who knows how this will turn out in the end, she needs her mother and Iris with her. Or part of her, the naive part of her thinks  _ this _ is it for her as far as weddings are concerned and she  _ needs _ her mother and Iris here.

“Actually, I was able to pull a few strings,” Moira says with a secretive smile and Felicity’s heart beats rapidly in her chest. She can’t possibly mean her mother, her mother is currently in a safe house, under a different name there is no way Moira could have found her mother.

Felicity quickly follows Moira out of the bedroom and into the living room and stops short when she sees her best friend standing in the middle of the room her gaze scrutinizing the massive portrait of Felicity and Oliver holding up their 4th grade trophy. 

“I always knew you dyed your hair, you liar!” Iris says in greeting, before she tackles Felicity in a hug. She then lowers her voice down to a whisper as she and Felicity hug. “I don’t know this woman, but she knows far too much for comfort. I don’t buy anything she told me.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Felicity mutters equally exasperated but then pulls back and smiles genuinely are her best friend, “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Well I can’t miss my best friend's wedding,” Iris says jovially and Felicity wonders just how much Moira told her best friend.

“I saw that you and Ms. West were roommates so I thought she would want to be here for your special day.” Moira says warmly, “I tried to get onto your mother but seems like Donna Kuttler or Smoak, just is not in the directory.”

"Yea I haven’t spoken to my mom in a few years,” Felicity lies with ease.

“Well at least you will have your best friend at your side,” Moira says in comfort, “I know it’s all so sudden, but I was grateful when I told Ms. West that you were getting married and she was able to drop everything and take the first flight out. Not many best friends would do that.”

“I’d do anything for Felicity,” Iris remarks coolly. Throwing her arm over Felicity’s and giving Moira a challenging look.

“I’m sure,” Moira mutters dubiously, but a smile, still gracing her features, “I’ll let you two catch up.”

When she walks away Iris gives Felicity a pointed look but then looks over at Oliver and William who are watching her with matching curious eyes. “Now, how about you introduce me to the two men in your life that stole your heart?”

Felicity has no doubt that Iris knows this entire wedding is all a ruse, but she clearly is not supposed to think that, so Iris is going to milk it for all its worth. 

She nudges Iris in the stomach not so gently then smiles at Oliver and reaches for William who immediately goes to hers. William looks at Iris curiously all for a second then smiles and waves, “Hi!”

“Oh hello!” Iris greets holding out her hand and laughs when William takes it and shakes it vigorously in greeting. “I think he actually remembers me.”

“You two had enough conversations over the last few months.” Felicity says with a laugh, pressing a kiss to William’s forehead and she sighs softly when he snuggles under her neck.

“Seems like I’m the only one who hasn’t met you yet then?” Oliver says joining them overing a small smile to Iris and Felicity can’t help but roll her eyes at the way her friend preens after Oliver smiles at her. “Iris, is nice to finally meet you. Felicity has told me a lot about you.”

“She has?” Iris asks in surprise, but then bites her lip when she realizes her mistake.

“She has. Has she not told you anything about me?” Oliver asks with confusion.

“Oh, she has, just not nearly enough,” Iris remarks, her eyes giving Oliver a once over, “not at all.”

“Stop it!” Felicity admonishes slapping her best friend lightly, who completely ignores her to shift her focus on an unsuspecting Oliver 

Felicity looks at Oliver apologetically, just as Iris hooks her arm through Oliver’s and tugs him towards the kitchen. “So, Mr. Mayor, Felicity tells me you can cook…”

“Dada?” William calls out slightly confused, but still content in Felicity’s arms.

“Let’s go save your Daddy from Aunty Iris,” Felicity teases lightly. 

“Wish!” William parrots.

She pauses at her words not even realizing her slip of the tongue until she says it. She looks across the room at Iris and Oliver who are talking animated and easily, we two worlds are colliding and nothing has imploded...yet.

For months she has tried to keep the two things separate, draw a fine line between her past and her present and yet watching her two best friends talk all her concerns seems to have melted away, despite the fact that she knows it’s anything  _ but _ okay.


	10. Chapter 10

“ _ Felicity.” _

_ “ _ I know Iris,” Felicity remarks tersely as she paces her bedroom. Oliver and William have gone out to pick up lunch while Iris and Felicity catch up, Felicity is unsure if Moira left with the workers or not but she’s yet to hear any movements outside so she assumes the older woman left.

“The she-witch came to your  _ house _ over a  _ month  _ ago and you  _ forgot _ to tell me?” Iris repeats for the second time. 

“I didn’t forget. I chose not tell you,” Felicity corrects knowing fully well using semantics will only piss Iris off more 

“I don’t care which it is, the point is  _ why _ didn’t you tell me?” Iris snaps back, “you promised me when you left, that would keep me up to date with everything that was happening with the FBI. As much as you were allowed.”

“She threatened Oliver and William and you... my mom...all of  _ this  _ with Oliver, the job, Starling. It was all done by the FBI. They controlled  _ everything.”  _ Felicity hisses out her anger at the entire situation rising once again.

“Which is even more reason why you need to tell Oliver  _ everything _ .” Iris insists yet again. “Especially if you intend to marry him. And really Felicity  _ marriage _ , do you really think marrying the man you  _ love _ under the guise of helping him keep his son is the best thing to do?”

“I was going to tell him!” Felicity insists glaring at Iris skeptical look. “I  _ was _ , but then Moira showed up with her stupid  _ pictures  _ and then you came I had no time!”

“Well, give me the kid, I’ll watch him while you talk to Oliver.” Iris says automatically leaving no room for Felicity to protest.

“I have it under control, Iris.”

“You are playing with fire. What if she shows up demanding to take you? Cause you know that woman isn’t gonna give you an  _ eviction  _ notice. She will barge in with  _ guns  _ blazing and whisk you away no questions asked. He deserves to hear it from you and not from Amanda Waller, take it from someone who witnessed it all the first time and could do nothing to stop it.”

“I know, I know. I will tell Oliver everything tonight definitely before the wedding tomorrow,” Felicity promises.

“Not tonight, when he comes back. Stop putting it off,” Iris insists.

“Okay, I will as soon as he and William get back.” Felicity promises.

Iris nods and then takes a seat on Felicity’s bed, “so what’s the deal with Moira Queen? How much does she know and what’s in it for her?”

“She told me that she would give me all the information she has on my father, if I marry Oliver,” Felicity confesses, wincing at the way Iris flies off the bed at that particular confession.

“ _ What? _ And you agreed to that? Felicity we both know the chances of this wedding happening tomorrow after you tell Oliver is slim to none, which is why I haven’t voiced an opinion about this shotgun wedding in the first place, but to agree to marry him only to get information on your father is not you.”

“Of course not. I never said I would take the information from her,” Felicity snaps back, “I wanted to talk to Oliver first and see what he thinks I should do. I’ve been at this for  _ weeks _ and I can’t find him or Helix  _ anywhere. It's _ like they disappeared without a trace.”

“You really were going to tell Oliver,” Iris says with awe and Felicity can’t even be affronted at her surprise tone because she knows she’s been flaking on this for weeks now, months if she’s being honest with herself. 

“Yes, though I plan on leaving his mother out of it. Moira can keep her secrets, Oliver has enough on his plate without worrying about how his mother is trying to manipulate things in his life yet again,” Felicity remarks dryly the fact that the only reason her father moved their family to the UK in the first place was because Moira threatened him.

Rationally, she knows it’s not  _ Moira _ ’s fault that her father was a crook who got caught, but a small part of her blames the older woman for the sudden move regardless.

“It’ll be okay,” Iris offers softly.

“You don’t know that,” Felicity sighs, her eyes filling with tears.

“If the boy loves you as much as you love him, I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

* * *

_ “Felicity, stop eating all the chocolate chips,” 16 year old Oliver grumbles as he swats her hand with the spatula yet again. _

_ “You’re taking too long!” Felicity whines. She licks her finger then dips her finger in the bowl of sugar and yelps in surprise when Oliver swats her on the ass. “Hey!” _

_ “We have to wait for the butter to get soft,” Oliver explains. He takes Felicity by the hand and spins her towards him, lowering his lips onto hers. When he pulls back he licks his lips and narrows his eyes at her, “Were you eating the caramel too?” _

_ “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Felicity says cheekily. She raises onto her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his lips, effectively distracting him.  _

_ She not so gently pushes him up against the fridge never once breaking their kiss. Oliver feels Felicity shift slightly to her right, when he opens his eyes he sees her arms stretch out to the side of them and he pushes her back gently to grab her arm, “Felicity! Were you kissing me just to steal more of the chocolate chips?” _

_ “No, of course not,” Felicity grins impishly, hiding her hand behind her back. “I like kissing you! More kissing I say!” _

_ She goes to kiss him again, but Oliver reaches behind her back to pull her hand, Felicity quickly shoves the chocolate chips in her mouth and grins at him, her face covered in chocolate.  _

_ Oliver can’t help but laugh and leans forward to lick some melted chocolate off her nose, “I love you.” _

_ “Oh!” Felicity squeaks, her eyes widen in surprise. She bites her lips and smiles shyly at Oliver, “I love you, too.” _

_ “Yea?” Oliver asks softly. He takes a step towards her and wraps his arms around her waist, both of them smiling stupidly at each other.  _

_ “Yea.” Felicity echoes before she rises on her toes and kisses him again. She giggles when Oliver licks in the corner of her mouth that still has chocolate on it.  _

_ Oliver sighs into her mouth spinning them around so she’s pressed up against the fridge. Felicity giggles against him, her giggles slowly turning into moans, when he runs his hand along her arm, interlacing their rings together he pauses when he feels something arm and squishy between their fingers.  _

_ He pulls back and looks at his hand, only to see it’s covered in half melted chocolate chips, “Felicity!” _

_ “How did that get there?” Felicity says with mock horror, unable to keep a straight face as she breaks out into loud giggles. _

_ Oliver rolls his eyes, but then smirks at her, he raises his hand above her face, wiggling his chocolate covered hand over her and he can see the moment she connects the dots. She looks at him horrified trying to move, but he has her snug against the fridge. _

_ “Oliver Queen don’t you dare!” She warns him. _

_ Oliver does not heeds her warning and smears chocolate along her neck and down the swoop of her t-shirt. “How did that get there?” _

_ He looks at her in mock surprise and then lowers his head to lick the chocolate from her skin. Felicity stops protesting immediately and her loud giggles turn into soft moans. Felicity gently tugs on his hair pulling him up to kiss her. After a few heated exchanges she pulls back and looks at him, her pupils are dilated and her chest heaving. “Let’s go upstairs.” _

_ “Okay,” Oliver replies stupidly before he kisses her briefly. When he pulls back, he stops short and looks back at her eagerly, “Do you mean?” _

_ Felicity bites her lip and nods her head, nervous energy evident, “Yea...I’m ready if you are.” _

_ “Yea!” Oliver replies eagerly, but then shrinks trying to temper his enthusiasm. Felicity only laughs and pulls him in for a kiss, her confidence boosted by his reaction. “C’mon you dork.” _

* * *

_ “But Dad! I don’t want to move!” _

_ “Don’t argue with me, Felicity Megan.” Noah Kuttler says firmly. He is not even looking at Felicity, his concern right now on his laptop as he types furiously. He has numerous boxes of things packed and some bags next to him. _

_ “But, Dad...Oliver…” Felicity protests yet again, her eyes filling with tears. _

_ This time Noah turns to face her with a hard, unreadable expression, “I don’t want to hear about Queen. I don’t want you to see him. Now go to your room and pack your things. We are leaving in an hour for the airport. Go!”  _

_ He closes his office door in her face leaving no room for argument and Felicity's heart shatters all over again.  _

_ “Baby.” Felicity turns around and collapses into her mother’s arms with a sob. _

_ “I can’t just leave without saying goodbye, Mom!” Felicity cries into her shoulder, “not after last night…” _

_ “Last night?” Donna echoes in realization. She pulls Felicity back to look her in the eyes, “honey, did you and Oliver sleep together?” _

_ “We were safe!” Felicity promises between her sobs. _

_ “Honey, I’m not mad,” Donna soothes, she ticks Felicity’s brown curls behind her ear and wipes away her tears with her thumb. “How was it?” _

_ “Mom!” Felicity whines in embarrassment, her cheeks pinking up. No matter how comfortable her mother is with talking those things Felicity will never feel comfortable talking to her mother about it. _

_ Donna only smiles secretly, and for a brief second Felicity forgets that her world is crumbling around her. “I can’t leave without saying goodbye! He’s never going to understand.” _

_ “Take my car, and go. Go see him,” Donna whispers as she presses a kiss to Felicity’s forehead, “I’ll distract your father for a few hours.” _

_ “I only got my license last week,” Felicity says weakly, but already mentally planning out the best route to get to Oliver’s house. _

_ “Exactly, you don’t need another driver in the car anymore,” Donna replies easily.  _

_ Felicity leaps into her mother’s arms, Donna only smiles and hugs her tightly, “Now go!” _

_ However, before she can release her hold on her mother, the door to her father’s office and he walks out with two suitcases and a large bag over his shoulder. _

_ “Ladies, get dressed. Change of plans we’re heading to the airport now.” _

_ “Noah! You can’t be serious, we haven’t even packed!” Donna protests. “You drop this bomb on us over breakfast and you give us no say? No time to digest any of this. We have lives here we can’t just pick up and leave!” _

_ Felicity looks on in horror, her finger itching to grab her phone. She had not texted Oliver since her father told them the news, still trying to process and not even sure how to begin to tell him. _

_ “You’re welcome to stay then, Donna.” Her father snaps back angrily. “But  _ **_Felicity_ ** _ and I will be leaving on the next flight out.” _

_ “Like hell you will!” Her mother practically growls as she takes a step towards her father. _

_ “And you think you and Felicity can survive on that waitress salary you make?” Noah counters, “in this neighborhood? Actually, I already sold the house and the majority of the furniture with it. Tell me Donna where do you plan to live? Are you going to stay with Moira Queen and one of her numerous bedrooms in that castle of hers?” _

_ Felicity watches as her mother deflates and all the fight has left her. Her mother gives her father a hard look, but then turns to Felicity with a look of sympathy, “Go pack honey. You’re gonna have to call Oliver on the way to the airport. I’m sorry.” _

_ Felicity knows there is more to this than she’s aware of, the looks her parents keep throwing at each other speaks for itself. Not to mention the speed at which all of this is happening  _

_ “Don’t bother trying. I cancelled the phones already,” Noah cuts in. _

_ Felicity scowls angrily at him and walks off, her shoulders slump in defeat. She can’t even remember the last thing she said to Oliver the night before. _

_ Did she tell him that she loved him too? He is going to think last night meant nothing, when in actuality it meant  _ **_everything_ ** _.  _

* * *

“You proposed to Felicity and you did not tell me?” Thea slams open the front door with a flourish as she stomps into the apartment. Her focus is completely on Oliver, both Felicity and Iris watch on in amusement as Oliver squirms under his sister’s scrutiny.

“Thea…it was sudden…” Oliver stumbles over his words and Iris snorts into her coffee mug. 

“Did you knock her up?” Thea asks eagerly, much too eagerly as far as Felicity is concerned.

“No!” Both Felicity and Oliver protest immediately. Felicity shoving Iris with her elbow as they make their way to the living room with the two siblings. 

“I’m sure they will get there eventually,” Iris chimes in with far too much delight. She holds out her hand to Thea “Iris West, the best friend.”

“Thea Queen, apparently the only person who did not know about this. For  _ months _ I’ve been trying to figure out if the two of you were dating and you just drop this bomb, I didn’t even have time to get a dress! Do  _ you _ have a dress?”

Felicity startles not expecting Thea to turn on  _ her. _

_ “ _ Thea, leave her alone,” Oliver jumps in immediately.

Iris is watching the exchange from behind her coffee mug taking it all in and Felicity knows she will get an earful.

“Retract the claws Ollie,” Thea says with delight, not even batting an eyelash at Oliver’s tone. Inquiring minds want to know after all you proposed and not even 24 hours later I’m getting a call from Mom telling me to clear my schedule because we have a  _ wedding  _ to plan. Which begs the question, or questions as the case may be. When did you propose? How did you propose? Did you propose because the incubator came back?”

Felicity and Oliver exchange a look, they had discussed this, well not the proposal itself but the when it’s happened and why of it all. 

“I proposed last week, before Samantha showed up.” Oliver explains easily. Thea’s eyes automatically go to Felicity’s bare finger and he quickly continues, “the proposal itself was spur of the moment and I wanted Felicity to choose the ring. We were planning on telling everyone  _ after _ we got the ring.”

Thea nods seeming to buy their story, or more like their lies to add to their ever growing list. “Okay, but how did it go from an engagement announcement to your  _ wedding  _ day? Is it because of the incubator?”

“Yes,” Felicity suddenly says stepping forward. Oliver looks at her in surprise, they agreed to stick to the fact that Samantha showing up was just bad timing. A coincidence. “When Oliver’s lawyer mentioned it would help his case, I suggested we move the date up.”

“Okay,” Thea says easily, she then turns back to Oliver, her eyes twinkling, “so how’d you do it?”

“What?” 

“Propose, Ollie!” Thea says in exasperation, she plops onto the couch and grins when William walks over to her. “Will, did you help your Daddy propose to Felicity?”

_ Oh _ .

The image alone makes Felicity’s heart clench at the thought of Oliver  _ and _ William proposing to her. It scares her more how much she wishes it were true.

“Thea…” Oliver starts off uncomfortably.

“Wait no one was  _ naked  _ right?” Thea hisses the last part, her hands covering William’s ears. The toddler pushing her away with a huff.

“Thea!” Oliver protests his ears pink in embarrassment. Felicity pointedly ignores Iris during the exchange.

“Hey! It’s a valid question,” Thea remarks, clearly taking delight in her brother’s embarrassment. “Heat of the moment proposals is a thing.”

“Okay! Look no one was naked, and if we were I wouldn’t not be telling my baby sister,” Oliver huffs.

“Whatever, stop stalling and tell us the story, Ollie.”

Oliver shifts uncomfortably on his feet and Felicity is about to step in and save him when the front door slams open again. 

“What now?” Felicity asks in exasperation. She’s getting tired people just strolling into their apartment, too many people have keys to this place.

“A text! Best friends for  _ thirty  _ years and all I get is a  _ text _ inviting me to your wedding!” Tommy comes barging into the apartment making a beeline for Oliver. “We shared a shower long before you shared one with her!”

“Tommy, don’t be gross.” Thea protests.

Tommy turns to her about to retort until his eyes land on Iris and Felicity can see the moment he turns on the charm. 

“Why, hello? I don’t think we’ve met, Tommy Merlyn, honorable best man, even though he hasn’t officially asked me yet.” He practically bows at Iris in greeting. “I’m sure you heard that I’m currently looking for a new shower buddy. Care to join me?”

Iris does not take his offering hand and looks at him biting back a smile, much to Felicity’s surprise. “Does that line ever work for you?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” Tommy volleys back only encouraged more, “got you to smile didn’t it?”

“Touché.” Iris replies and offers her hand to Tommy, who takes it eagerly and he presses a kiss to Iris’ knuckles and Felicity watches on in horror as her best friend practically preens. “Iris West. Maid of honour, and she  _ did _ ask me.”

“Yes, well you don’t seem like a person, one forgets, Miss West.” 

Felicity looks at Oliver in exasperation as her best friend giggles at the complements. 

“I think I’m gonna gag.” Thea chimes in effectively ruining the moment. 

Iris steps away from Tommy, but Felicity doesn’t miss the way her best friend shares looks with Oliver’s best friend. 

“Can you stop flirting for five seconds so that Ollie can tell me how he proposed to Felicity?” Thea grumbles to her brother.

Tommy’s eyes widen at her words and looks at Oliver eagerly, “oh yes let’s hear about this proposal he didn’t even  _ consult  _ me about.”

Oliver rolls his eyes, “Says the guy who drunkenly proposed to a woman he met in Vegas and almost  _ married _ .”

“One time! It happened one time!” Tommy protests he looked at Iris sheepishly, “I was young and stupid.”

“This was last summer,” Thea chimes in grinning impishly at her brother.

“Could the two of you  _ not!”  _ Tommy grumbles at Oliver and Thea who only laugh. Iris rolls her eyes and plops onto the couch looking at Oliver expectantly. “So how did you get my best friend to agree to marry you?”

Felicity scowls, sending Iris a warning look, she can see the way Oliver shifts uncomfortably on his feet and Felicity knows his guilt is settling in yet again. “Guys, it was a beautiful proposal you don’t…”

“I took her to the lake house.” Oliver suddenly chimes in. He licks his lips nervously, his eyes moving to Felicity briefly before looking back at his sister and best friend.

“Dad’s lake house? We used to go there a lot when we were kids.” Thea remarks fondly, she looks across at Felicity curiously. “I don’t remember if you came with us.”

“I did.” Felicity whispers her own mouth suddenly dry.

“She did.” Oliver echoes. He now turns his entire focus on Felicity, her body warming at his stare. “I taught Felicity how to fish off the dock. Felicity taught me about the stars. I took her up there last weekend, we watched the stars. She was showing William all the stars teaching  _ him _ about the constellation just like she taught me and I knew in that moment. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and I just…. I asked her on the dock where we…”

“Shared our first kiss,” Felicity concludes slightly choked up at his story, her eyes getting misty, never leaving Oliver’s. “ _ Oliver _ .”

“You already said yes, Felicity. Please don’t jump my brother while I’m right here. Who knows what my poor nephew has been privy to already.” Thea comments, effectively ruining the moment. 

Thea misses the look they share and goes to hug her brother, “the short notice aside. I am really happy for you, Ollie. Both of you.”

She then turns to Felicity and engulfs Felicity in a hug, “I’m glad to officially welcome you to the family. You have always been a part of this family, it seems like longer than I have.”

“We aren’t married yet,” Felicity points out weakly, she hates that she is lying to even more people now.

“Technicality,” Thea says dismissively as she squeezes Felicity one more time before she releases her hold on her.

Felicity smiles at Thea softly but her mind still preoccupied with all the lies that are consuming her. Oliver’s thoughtful proposal. 

She needs to put an end to all this before more people get hurt

* * *

“Don’t,” Felicity warns as Iris climbs into her bed. 

“The wedding is  _ tomorrow.  _ You said you would talk to Oliver. Yet here you are hiding in your bedroom.” Iris hisses despite the fact no one can hear them. “Although, it looks more like a guest bedroom.”

“Moira had people move all my stuff into Oliver’s room. I just haven’t had time to move things back.” Felicity grumbles. There was an awkward moment earlier where Felicity was looking for her bedroom slippers and walked in on Oliver in only his towel and since then she has decided to forgo ever going in his room again.

“Are you having second thoughts?” Iris asks quietly.

Felicity sighs her gaze fixed on the moving ceiling fan above them, “what if he loses William because of me?”

“I thought you said your record was sealed?”

“No, I mean by leaving and not going through with the wedding. What if it does more harm than good?” Felicity sighs and rolls to her side, Iris shifting to look at her.

It reminds Felicity of when they were freshman and their biggest concern was whether or not they should skip their next class or not.

“You’re not actually considering going through with this wedding  _ without  _ telling him are you?”

“No… I don’t know...I just…”

“You’re not just afraid of Oliver losing William, you’re afraid of losing  _ both _ of them.” Iris’ astute declaration has Felicity’s heart clench as her true fear comes to light.

“I love him...I’m in love with him and I don’t want to lose him, either of them.” Felicity confesses. “I don’t think I can walk away but the longer I wait it’s less likely that it will be my choice to make. He’s never gonna understand.”’

“I don’t think so. I think we are underestimating him. I heard that proposal of his, that wasn’t just something you make up on a whim. That was a  _ plan _ , a plan from someone who has been looking at rings, looking at a  _ future _ with you and his son.”

“ _ Iris.”  _

“I’m just saying maybe the dude hasn’t been against the fake marriage thing because it wouldn’t be fake to him.”

“It would be based on a lie,” Felicity points out weakly.

“Eh, not after you tell him everything,” Iris points out. She sits up and looks at Felicity with determination tugging Felicity to a sitting posturing. “He might surprise you.”

“It won’t change the fact that Waller will be coming for me one day soon,” Felicity points out. Her feet hit the wooden flooring with a deafening thud.

“True but Felicity, this guy of yours? He doesn’t seem like the one sit by and  _ let  _ it happen, he’s not going to  _ let _ them take you away without a fight.”

Iris words ring true, the possibility did occur to her and that thought terrifies her, she doesn’t want Oliver tangled up in her mess anymore than he already is. 

Felicity rises to her feet with a deep breath. Time to face the music


	11. Chapter 11

“Hey.” She calls out softly as she gently pushes open Oliver’s door. 

He’s sitting on his bed leaning against the headboard, a file in his lap. Upon seeing her, he closes the file and puts it to the side, giving her his full attention.

“Hey,” he echoes with equal tentativeness. He shifts in the bed, his hand twitching by his side, “I wasn’t sure if I was going to see you before... before tomorrow.”

“I know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding,” Felicity offers with a feeble joke trying to ease the tension, but Oliver does not smile.

“If it was about the proposal…I’m sorry...if I…”

“Oliver, no. It’s not about the proposal,” Felicity interjects immediately. She takes a tentative seat on the bed. “The proposal...the proposal was  _ perfect.” _

“Yea?” Oliver shifts closer to her, his voice laden with uncertainty.

Felicity tugs nervously on the bedding before slowly meeting his eyes, “It...I would have had a hard time saying no to that proposal.”

“It’s how I always imagined proposing to you,” Oliver says shyly, his eyes not meeting hers.

“You thought about that?” Felicity asks unnecessarily, despite knowing that the proposal was clearly not something he thought up on a whim. “We were barely sixteen.  _ Kids _ ...Oliver.”

“Felicity, I was  _ so _ in love with you.” Oliver confesses, his eyes finally meeting hers.

_ Was.  _

Felicity’s heart clenches at his words, and she wonders yet again if they missed their chance. If she took too long to tell him.

“I always thought that you felt the same way, that we were on the same page,” Oliver says feebly, Felicity’s breath catching in her throat at his words. “Not  _ marriage,  _ we were sixteen after all but I thought...did you know?”

“Oliver, I’ve always loved you...I don’t remember a time when I  _ didn’t _ love you.” Felicity says breathlessly, confessing far more than she intended. 

“Oh,” Oliver says in surprise. He licks his lips nervously, seeming unsure what to do with her confession. “I meant...did you know that you were moving away, before...before that night?”

“ _ No _ .” Felicity crawls over the bed towards him, taking his hand in hers. 

“You didn’t call, you didn’t email. I thought…” He trails off, yanking his hand out hers.

He sounds so broken, so uncertain, she never thought that her leaving would still affect him like this. It was naive of her; of the  _ them _ to assume that they could just sweep things under the rug, no matter how much time passed.

“I never- my dad, he told us about the job offer that morning, by midday we were on a flight to London. There was no time.” Felicity explains, and her excuse sounds weak to her ears and she can see Oliver is looking at her skeptically in return. “I thought...I thought it would have been easier to just cut all ties. I know you would have wanted to try long distance and I didn’t think I would ever be back in the US.”

“I deserved to know Felicity, we were best friends for 6 years. I deserved to make that decision. You took that choice away from me.”

“You’re right and I’m sorry.” Felicity replies, Oliver looking up at her in surprise, and she hates that he’s even surprised by her apology. “I didn’t contact you, because it hurt too much, and I didn’t want to face it, face you. I took that choice away from you and I shouldn't have.”

“We were just kids, Felicity,” Oliver points out, trying to give her an out for her actions.

“Enough that, you were already thinking about  _ proposing _ ?” Felicity counters, “Yes we were kids, and other people decided where we go, where we lived, but I should have still called you, you deserved more than that.”

Oliver nods, accepting her apology, but Felicity can’t help but continue. She folds her hands in her lap and looks at him shyly, “I never thought we’d end up here like this.”

“You didn’t think we would be getting married in order for me to keep my son from his biological mother?” Oliver asks with a hollow laugh.

But Felicity only smiles wistfully, “I always thought if we ended up in each other’s lives it would happen naturally. That we’d meet accidentally, who knows, fall in love again, eventually walk down the aisle, but under our terms you know?”

“Felicity, if you don’t…”

“Oliver, I haven’t changed my mind. I won’t,” Felicity says firmly.

Oliver nods but he then reaches out and lightly grasps her hand, “Felicity, was there something you wanted to tell me?” 

Oliver prods gently but gets straight to the point at hand and if she is being honest with herself, it’s the small push she needs.

Felicity sighs but releases his hand and her fingers curl into her pyjama pants nervously, her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage. 

No place better to start than the beginning.

“I started college late, later than most people. I was 26 and by then I was already on my way to creating my own AI..artificial intelligence…”

“You had your own  _ Alexa _ ?” Oliver interrupts clearly impressed.

“Overwatch,” Felicity corrects with a fleeting smile, “she was far more advanced than your typical AI, more than I intended, more than I could have even dreamed.” 

“And then what happened?” Oliver asks softly, clearly noticing the way the light dims in her eyes.

Felicity signs, her fingers tugs nervously on the stray thread on her sleeve, “then...Cooper happened. He was... _ brilliant _ , but young, so very young but it didn’t seem to matter ‘cause he was able to keep up with me intellectually and we had the same dreams, aspirations...at least so I thought. I showed him Overwatch and he was enraptured by it...not...not with me, like I thought... and I trusted him. I trusted him with my baby and he used it and me. At first he wiped out student loans, then he used it to hack into a federal bank, and by the time I found out I couldn’t fix it. It was too late. I had to destroy Overwatch, but the damage was already done.”

“He got caught,” Oliver deduces.

“ _ We _ got caught.” Felicity clarifies she can see the way Oliver shifts on the bed confusion etched across his face.

“But you had nothing to do with it,” Oliver protests indignantly, and Felicity’s heart warms at his tone.

“No, but it was my invention, my digital fingerprints were all over it. It would be impossible to prove that I had nothing to do with it.” Felicity explains with a sigh, the memory of that night comes back to her yet again. The thought that her life was over because she trusted the wrong person. “Cooper and I were arrested two weeks before our final semester ended.”

“I don’t understand,” Oliver’s forehead wrinkles and he gives her that look he always gets when he can’t make sense of her words.“I don’t understand how are you here then?”

“I made a deal with the FBI, my expertise in exchange for my immunity.” 

“Your immunity,” Oliver repeats, still unsure what she is trying to say.

“I must find my father otherwise I’m forever in the FBI debt. That, or jail really.” 

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me start from the beginning?” Felicity pleads unsure if what he’s thinking at the moment.

* * *

_ She’s going to go to jail.  _

**_Jail_ ** _. _

_ She’s not cut out for prison.  _

_ Felicity sits on the hard plastic in the interrogation room, her foot bobbing nervously against the linoleum floor. The cold steel of the handcuffs cut into her wrist, the dark purple nail polish is chipped at the corner of her pinkie glaring back at her. Reminding her when the officers grabbed her by the wrist and her fingernail scraped against the heavy metal, chipping before the handcuffs clicked into place. _

_ She’s currently facing life in prison and all she can focus on is the fact that her $40 manicure is ruined. Maybe she’s more her mother’s daughter than she thought. _

_ At the thought of her mother, Felicity’s heart clenches in horror. When she was 19, she made a promise to herself that she would never abandon her mother and yet here she is leaving her mother yet again, but for good this time. _

_ The stale air in the interrogation room tickles her nose. She shifts yet again on the hard plastic of the chair, and winces when the handcuffs dig into her skin yet again. She’s lost sense of time, but she knows she’s been in here for a few hours at least. _

_ She knows next to nothing about the law, but she knows enough they can’t keep her here forever. Well according to the endless episodes of Law and Order that is. _

_ At the very least she deserves a phone call. Not that she has anyone to call. She won’t call her mother and poor Iris is probably outside the police station demanding she sees Felicity. _

_ There is no one else. She has no one else. _

_ “Ms. Smoak, you have quite an interesting history.” A bored voice calls out, startling Felicity from her thoughts. _

_ “I’m not too sure how interesting I am to the FBI, but….but if you are going to arrest me, I’m going to need a lawyer,” Felicity tries to steel her voice, and it only wavers at the final word. She sits up but winces when the handcuffs press into her wrist yet again. _

_ “We will get you a lawyer, but first I think you will want to hear what the FBI has proposed for you,” the woman places a laptop on the table, and Felicity tries to keep a straight face, when she notices it is  _ **_her_ ** _ laptop. But the other woman picks up on it immediately and only smirks. _

_ “My name is Agent Amanda Waller.” she introduces, but does not offer any further information, instead she pulls out a small pair of keys and quickly unlocks the handcuffs for Felicity. _

_ Felicity has a joke about bondage on the tip of her tongue, but refrains, assuming the no nonsense agent would not appreciate her ill timed humour. _

_ Agent Waller flips open Felicity’s laptop and spins it around to face Felicity, she gestures to the lock screen, “unlock it.” _

_ “I’m sorry?” Felicity can’t help but stutter. Surely, someone in the FBI was able to unlock her laptop. _

_ “Unlock it.” Waller repeats with a slight edge in her tone. She scowls as she takes a seat, she folds her slim arms across her chest and looks at Felicity expectantly, “No one in our offices was able to unlock it.” _

_ Oh. With a few swift flick of her wrists, her laptop comes to life and she can see the scowl on Agent Waller’s face deepen  _

_“It appears your intelligence, your capabilities have impressed my bosses’ bosses.” Waller continues, and it’s obvious to Felicity that Agent Waller is_ ** _anything_** _but impressed._

_ “But you aren’t...impressed I mean,” Felicity can’t help but say. She’s already going to jail, lost everything and everyone, pissing off the federal agent that is about to arrest her, seems minute in comparison.  _

_ “You and your boyfriend infiltrated the national bank. Your boyfriend stole over 5.5 million dollars with the help of  _ **_your_ ** _ little program.” _

_ Felicity bites the inside of her lip to hold back her scoff. Her “little” program was able to infiltrate federal security, if anything it should teach them to increase their firewalls at the very least. Not that she agrees with Cooper’s actions, but she would not belittle the task her program was able to complete. _

_ She suspects the agent is more annoyed that a college student was able to outsmart their state of the art security. _

_ Not that she would voice that either. _

_ “I’m sure, as you are aware that there is no physical proof to your claims that you had nothing to do with your boyfriend’s heist.” Agent Waller continues, her tone tells Felicity that the older woman has already made her opinion on the matter no matter what Felicity has to say. “However, it’s not up to me. The people in charge who have a much higher pay grade than I, have decided that your talents would be wasted in jail.” _

_ Felicity sits up straight at the woman’s words, her blood rushing in her ears as her heart pounds rapidly against her rib cage. This could be her saving grace.  _

_ But, she’s afraid to have hope. _

_ “The FBI has a proposition for you Ms. Smoak in exchange for your immunity, you help us find the organization known as Helix.” Waller smirks at the gasp Felicity was unable to contain, “From your reaction I suspect you know what Helix is.” _

_ “I have nothing to do with my father or his company.” Felicity snaps back angrily. “My mother and I have not taken a dime of his blood money since we arrived back in the states over 13 years ago.” _

_ “Yes,” Waller’s dry tone only angers Felicity more, “we are aware and your innocence in this regard is not up for debate. However, the FBI is also aware that you have been trying to find your father for the past few years with no avail. The FBI would like to offer you our resources in order for you to find your father and his organization in exchange for your immunity.” _

_ “You mean take down my father and his organization,” Felicity corrects without any hint of remorse or hesitancy. _

_ Amanda’s brown eyes barely flicker, piercing into Felicity. “Yes, I’m sure we don’t need to go through the endless list of misdemeanours your father is guilty of.” _

_ Felicity would hardly call the crimes her father has committed over the years as “misdemeanours”.  _

_ “Regardless, in exchange for finding both your father and his organization you would be cleared from any crime that Mr. Cooper committed using your program and would no longer be considered an accessory or anyway involved.” _

_ Felicity licks her lips nervously. She’s not stupid, she knows this is it, there is no other option besides jail for her at this point. “And if I don’t? Don’t find my father or Helix, I mean.” _

_ “That will not be an option, Ms. Smoak.” Waller remarks with finality.  _

_ Her declaration gives Felicity pause, she didn’t think it was an either or situation, but it doesn’t bring to the forefront of  _ **_after_ ** _ the fact. “And  _ **_when_ ** _ I find my father and his organization, what’s left for me?” _

_ “Well that is what immunity entails. You find your father, allow us to capture him and then you walk free.” By the agent’s tone Felicity knows for a fact that Waller did not agree with this arrangement. “ regardless of how long it takes, be it a year from now or ten years from now. You find us your father and you walk free.” _

_ Ten years. _

_ “So what you’re saying instead of going to jail for the rest of my life, the FBI wants what? For me to be locked up in some federal building until I find my father?” Felicity asks incredulously, “I've been looking for my father for over 10 years. I don’t want to spend another ten years looking for him.” _

_ “What you want Ms. Smoak is not up for debate.” Waller scowls angrily, “either you agree to this or you are off to jail. Simple as that.” _

_ “I’m never going to be able to find my father hiding behind the FBI servers,” Felicity counters and she can see Waller hackles already being raised. “There is a reason why none of your best agents haven’t been able to find him.” _

_ “And what do you propose? That we let a criminal walk free? Live freely and trust that you will look for him and not just disappear off the face of the earth like he has been able to? Life father, like daughter?” _

_ Felicity huffs at her accusation, “No, I do not have the resources the FBI has that will allow me to find my father, just I cannot do that within the constraints of the FBI servers.” _

_ “Ms. Smoak, you seem to misunderstand your role in all of this. You do not call the shots here. You are not in charge and if it were left up to me you would rotting in a jail cell next to your good for nothing…” _

_ “Agent Waller that is enough!” A loud voice booms startling Felicity almost straight off her chair. _

_ A tall dark woman stalks into the room her high heels clicking loudly against the linoleum floor, echoing in the small interrogation room.  _

_ “Deputy Director Watson!” Waller stutters rising to her feet immediately, “I didn’t know that you were involved in this case.” _

_ Watson however ignores the agent much to Felicity’s amusement but when she turns to face Felicity, the blonde sits up straight immediately, “One year.” _

_ “I’m sorry?” Felicity asks, confused. _

_ “The FBI is willing to give you one year to find your father under your terms, within reason of course. We will be willing to give a new identity that allows you to go where your searches take you. But you will have to report back to the FBI on your progress and if we find that you are making no progress we pull you back to Washington to watch over you. That which will be non negotiable, and you will be in our custody until you fulfill the end of the deal.” _

_ Felicity nods, thinking over the woman’s words. The new identity gives her pause, she does not want that for herself, much less the two people who would be most affected if she were to get another identity. Another identity means that Felicity Smoak would cease to exist, she can’t have that. She licks her lips nervously as their eyes meet, “I have just have one request,” _

_ Waller scoffs yet again, but Deputy Director Watson only raises her hand, her eyes never leaving Felicity and Waller silences immediately. “Yes?” _

_ “I want protection for my mother. If...no when my father catches wind that I’m looking for him? He is going to go to her and if he finds out I’m working with the FBI, and we both know there is a high chance he  _ **_will_ ** _ find out. He will go to my mother as a form of leverage. I need her to be protected...otherwise...otherwise there will be no deal.” _

_ “You can’t give the FBI an ultimatum!” Waller barks out in annoyance. _

_ “Ms. Smoak, just to be clear, you do realize should you not take this deal that you will processed under the highest degree as an accessory to Mr. Cooper’s crimes?” Watson asks Felicity calmly. “A total that may very well amount to no less than 50 years in prison?” _

_ Felicity nods in understanding as she wiped her clammy hands against her jeans. “Yes.” _

_ “Very well, I will have a few agents fly out to Florida for your mother and explain the circumstances to her. You have my word that she will be under the FBI’s protection until your father is in custody.” _

_ Waller’s loud protest fades in the background as Felicity releases a loud sigh of relief and body going limp in the hard plastic chair. _

_ She’s not going to jail. _

* * *

“Oliver? I need you to say something,” Felicity calls out softly as she shifts on the bed.

“How long?” Oliver asks hoarsely, at Felicity’s confused look he stretches over to his bed side table yanks open the drawer and grabs an envelope. Before Felicity could react he tosses it towards her.

It’s not an envelope, but a card and when Felicity flips it over she can’t help but gasp.

_ Happy 1 year Anniversary! _

“It’s been almost a year since you moved in with William and I…” Oliver trails off unnecessarily as he gestures to the card, his ears turn pink in embarrassment. 

He bought her a card to celebrate one year of living together. 

“ _ Oliver,” _

_ “ _ How long do you have till the FBI comes for you?” Oliver asks bluntly. He does not wait for her answer but quickly continues his tone rising and laced with anger. “Were you ever going to tell me? Or were you waiting for the FBI to show up at our doorstep and take you away? Or worse were you planning to just disappear without a trace yet again?”

“I’m telling you now,” Felicity protests weakly but they both know that’s not good enough. “I thought I could have found my dad and put this all behind me, and I wanted to tell you but then Samantha showed up and I know it’s not a good enough excuse, but I’m telling you now.”

“If you had told me sooner I could have helped you. I could have put a plan in place, but now...now there is no  _ time.” _

_ “ _ There was nothing you could do, Oliver. I made a deal with the FBI. I have to uphold that deal.” Felicity explains far more calmly than she feels.

“What?  _ No!  _ I can’t just let them take you away, Felicity!” Oliver protests loudly rising to his feet as he begins to pace the bedroom anxiously. “I can’t let them take you away from William and me...I won’t!”

“Oliver, there is nothing that can be done.” Felicity says gently.

“I refuse to lose you again, Felicity!” Oliver all but roars, he turns to face her, his shoulders dropping in defeat. He then whispers three words she’s waited years to hear, followed by the three most devastating ones, “I love you Felicity. I can’t lose you….”.

“ _Oliver,”_ Felicity gasps out scrambling to her feet to move towards him.

“I know we said we couldn’t do this and that we…”

Felicity cuts him off by pressing her lips firmly against his. She wraps her arms around his neck deepening the kiss. 

When she pulls back slightly, they are both panting, Oliver’s arms are around her waist, his finger digging into her flesh. “I love you, too,” Felicity murmurs as she rises onto her tiptoes to kiss him again.

“ _ Felicity _ ,” this time Oliver pulls back, trying to catch his own breath. He presses his forehead against hers and sighs, “let me help you find your father. I can use my resources.”

“No, I don’t want you on his radar.” Felicity protests, she tries to take a step away from him but Oliver won’t let her. “You don’t know what he’s capable of. I refuse to let you and by extension William anywhere close to him or his organization.” 

“I’m in love with his daughter. I’m gonna be on his radar regardless,” Oliver says easily, Felicity’s heart skips a beat at the way he admits it so freely.

“But we have William to think about,” Felicity points out rationally.

“William,” Oliver echoes. He pulls her with him and they both sit back on the bed, their bodies automatically angling towards each other. Their hands clasp between them.

“Nothing changes with William. Tomorrow we get married and ensure you keep William,” Felicity promises. “Waller wasn’t exactly forthcoming about  _ when _ she would come. Technically she said four weeks,  _ five _ weeks ago. I don’t know what’s keeping her, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. So when your mother snowballed this wedding I just went with it.”

“And what if Waller showed up the day after we got married, how were we...how was I supposed to explain why my  _ wife _ suddenly disappeared?” Oliver counters, he rises to his feet again and starts pacing in frustration.

“I hadn’t thought that far okay?” Felicity explains desperately, “I was only focused on William. When we agreed to get married I was only thinking about William and making sure you got to keep your son.”

“But you still have to leave,” Oliver protests. He comes to stand in front of her holding out his hand to her. She takes it willingly and he pulls her into his arms. She sighs deeply nuzzling his chest and breathing in his familiar scent. 

“I still have to leave,” Felicity echoes after a beat. She places her chin on his chest and looks up at him, “if you don’t want to go through with the wedding, we can always find another way.”

“No! I  _ want  _ to marry you!” Oliver says quickly, his hands grasping her elbows despite the fact that she had no plans on pulling away “don’t you want to marry me?”

“Well yes, but not if it hurts your chances with William…”

Felicity grunts when Oliver presses his lips against hers cutting her off. “Felicity, I want to marry  _ you.” _

_ “Oh!”  _ Felicity gasps in realization. 

This is no longer about William, they are not longer talking about his son. Oliver wants to marry _her._ He wants to marry her even though they both know that their future is uncertain. Their time is limited, she could have days or weeks with him and William and yet...and yet he's standing in front of her asking her to marry him. It's crazy and reckless, but she can't find it in her to say no. For once in her life she is going to call the shots and she is going to marry Oliver Queen because she _wants_ to.

She licks her lips nods her head as their eyes meet. "Okay.”

“Okay?” Oliver echoes looking at her for confirmation.

“Let’s get married and then make sure you keep your son.”

She kisses him firmly on her lips, but when she tries to step away Oliver grabs her by the wrist, “don’t go.”

She had only intended to head back to her bedroom for the night, but one look at Oliver's face she knows she's not going anywhere, for now at least. A loud cry echoes through the small baby monitor at Oliver’s bedside table bringing them both back to the present..

“ _ Dada! Dada!” _

“Go get your son.” Oliver is about to protest, but he watches as Felicity silently crawls into his bed. She's made her decision.

“ _ Dada!” _

Felicity chuckles, “he’s gonna wake up Iris.”

“Right...right.” Oliver trails off, his eyes still trained on her as he makes his way towards the door, only looking away once he walks out the room.

She burrows deeper under the blankets and smiles when she hears William’s small voice.

“ _ Dada! Hi! Tee?” _

_ “Yea buddy let’s go. Tee is waiting for us.” _

She is, she’s waiting for them. She’ll always wait for her two Queen boys. No matter what the future holds for them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I intended for the wedding to be part of the last chapter, but as you can see it needed a chapter of its own.
> 
> Thank you all so much for sticking with this story despite all the delays. We're on the final stretch of chapters. I am taking a break for the holidays and hoping to start back posting the final 4 chapters and epilogue for the new year. 
> 
> Happy Holidays to those of you who celebrate and I hope we are able to put 2020 behind us.

Felicity stands in one of the many rooms of the Queen manor facing the full length mirror. She smoothes out the lace of her white dress, her bare toes curling into the soft carpet. She looks at her reflection and sighs. She looks beautiful, her blonde hair is perfectly curled cascading down her back. 

Everything seems perfect, except her mother is not here and Felicity’s heart feels heavy. She wants to do this, she wants to marry Oliver but she does not want to do without her mother.

“Why don’t you call her?” Iris’ voice calls out.

Felicity frowns as their eyes meet in the mirror, but Iris only huffs in exasperation, “your mother.”

Felicity shakes her head in the negative, “I can’t do that to her.”

More likely Felicity doesn’t think she could see her mother on the small screen and  _ not _ throw caution out the window and bring her here. 

“Okay,” Iris as she walks further into the room, “I’m guessing the fact that you did not come back to your bedroom and that we got  _ whisked away _ by your sister in law that the conversation went well?”

“I’m marrying Oliver Queen,” Felicity declares with a smile.

“You’re getting married,” Iris echoes with equal delight as she hugs Felicity tightly.

The moment is broken by the bedroom door slamming loudly against the wall, they both turn around in time to see William waddling into the room dressed in a little tux complete with a white lace bow tie that matches Felicity’s dress perfectly.

“Tee! Tee! Tee!” He chants Felicity’s name as he runs towards her

“Oh! My baby boy, look at how handsome you look,” Felicity gushes. She crouches down to greet him and William collapses into her arms.

“Sum Sum” William parrots slapping his chest.

Felicity laughs and nods her head in agreement. She can hear the flash on Iris’ phone going off behind her, but she’s far too focused on the little boy in front of her. “Yes, you’re my handsome boy.”

Felicity leans forward and presses a loud wet kiss on William’s cheek. The toddler giggles loudly and Felicity can’t help but laugh when she sees a big red lipstick stain on his cheek. “Whoops”

William only laughs and leans forward to kiss Felicity square on the lips “kiss kiss!”

“Kiss kiss. Muah.” Felicity echoes the game she and William play all the time.

The toddler then proceeds to kiss the palm of his hand and then fling his arms wide mimicking that he’s blowing her a kiss. “kiss kiss!”

“Oh for Pete’s sake! It’s practically offensive how cute the two of you are!” Iris remarks from behind her phone, never once stopping from taking pictures. “I don’t want kids, like  _ ever _ . But even  _ my _ ovaries just exploded at that.”

Felicity laughs wholeheartedly as she scoops up William before rising to her feet. William throws back his head and laughs, mimicking her. “Funny, Tommy said that too, well you know implied William made him consider wanting kids for a second….not the ovaries part. He’d kill me if he knew I told you he has ovaries.”

“Tommy...that’s Oliver’s hot best friend, the one with the beard right?” Iris pretends to act nonchalant, but they both know she knows exactly who Tommy is.

“There you are! Young man you had poor Raisa worried!” Moira Queen comes bustling into the room in a floor length royal blue gown, looking elegant and well put together as always. 

“Gam! Hi!” William greets her with an enthusiastic wave, completely undeterred by her hassled tone.

Moira huffs in exasperation, any annoyance completely dissipating at the toothy smile here grandson. She walks up to the pair and gently tweaks William’s nose earning a small giggle in response. It will never cease to amaze her how Oliver’s stoic mother can be turned into a complete softie when it comes to William.

“You’re not supposed to see the bride before the wedding,” Moira continues teasing the toddler lightly and tickling his side. “C’mon William, time to go back to your father.”

He only squirms in Felicity’s arms but makes no move to go to his grandmother. Felicity takes an unconscious step back, “Actually, Oliver and decided William will walk me down the aisle.”

Moira tuts at Felicity’s words, “Really? It’s bad enough this morning you and Oliver decided to skip straight to the honeymoon, must you go against this tradition too? Need I remind you that you’re marrying into the Queen family?”

Felicity bites her tongue at Moira’s remark. She knows that she’s reminding Felicity what she agreed too, but that entire thing is moot now anyway. Besides she and Oliver were hardly doing anything when both Thea and Moira came bargaining into the bedroom. They were barely kissing.

Okay, so Oliver’s hand may have been on her ass, but they couldn’t have possibly seen that, given the fact that they were both under the covers, fully clothed might she add.

“Oliver and I thought it would be a nice idea for William to walk me down the aisle, seeing as he is the reason we ended back in each other’s lives.” 

“You mean the reason we’re all here in the first place,” Moira corrects.

“That too,” Felicity says easily. She and Oliver may have agreed to get married for real, but neither of them have forgotten the reason they are doing this in the first place. Felicity shifts William to her right and looks at Moira head on. “I love your son and your grandson very much, and  _ nothing  _ will change that.”

“ _ Oh,”  _ Moira remarks in realization. She takes a step back from Felicity, her blue eyes going briefly to Iris who is still watching on silently, then back to Felicity. “You told him.”

“Everything,” Felicity remarks with a nod, unsure how Moira will exactly take the news. 

In the end they both wanted the same thing, for Felicity to marry Oliver so that he can keep his son, granted their reasons are slightly different now, but the end result is the same. 

“You said that you may have to leave without notice,” Moira points out, her expression unreadable.

Felicity nods, her arms tightening around William subconsciously, “Yes, Oliver is aware. The important thing is that Oliver gets to keep his son.”

“You’re going to end up hurt in the end, both of you… _ all _ of you.” Moira says with a frown.

“I know, but it would be worth it Oliver gets to keep William, that is what matters most to me.” Felicity says earnest as she presses a soft kiss to William’s hair.

“You really do love them,” Moira looks at Felicity in a whole new light, in understanding, now with respect. 

“I would do anything for them, even if it means walking away to protect them.”

Moira hums and nods her head, contemplating Felicity’s words. She takes a step towards them and squeezes Felicity’s forearm gently. “Welcome to the family, Felicity.”

With that said she gently ruffles William’s hair and then walks out of the room not even glancing at Iris as she leaves.

Iris turns to Felicity, her eyes wide, “why do I just feel liked you just joined the mafia?”

“Shut up, Iris.” 

“I’m just saying, she gives me godfather vibes. Well godmother. Are we sure  _ she _ didn’t kill your father and that’s why you can’t find him?”

Felicity only huffs in exasperation, but catches her reflection once again. This time William is in her arms, his little fingers plucking at the lace of her dress, she gently uncurls his finger and nips at them lightly.

She’s really doing this.

“Hey, you ready?” Iris calls out with concern.

Felicity looks at her reflection one last time and nods her head, “always.”

* * *

Felicity stands in the almost deserted hallway, her fingers twisting around the bouquet of flowers her nerves getting the best of her. She peers around searching for William and Thea as people offer her curious looks as they rush to their seat.

Despite the less than 48 hour notice the garden is filled with people, all of whom Felicity has no recollection of knowing. She knows Oliver is the mayor and there are typical expectations, but it still unnerves her that their  _ small _ ceremony somehow turned into such a spectacle. 

She sees Iris walking towards her and sighs in relief, “hey have you seen Thea? She took William a while ago for a diaper change but I haven’t seen her since. The ceremony is about to start.”

She glances across the room one last time but stops short on seeing Iris' shocked expression, “what? What’s wrong?”

“I think there was one more guest added to the list,” Iris says softly nodding behind Felicity.

Felicity frowns in confusion, she knows it can’t be Agent Waller otherwise Iris wouldn’t look so overwhelmed. But when Felicity turns on her heels she almost collapses in shock.

“Baby Girl! Look at you!” Donna Smoak all but squeals and  _ runs _ towards Felicity in her 4 inch heels. 

“ _ Mom _ !” Felicity gasps out in shock. “Oh my god! Mom! How...when did you... _ how _ are you here?”

“Oliver called me late last night, almost gave me a heart attack mind you. He  _ chartered _ a flight to pick me up and here I am!” 

She takes a step back from Felicity and throws both arms up in a flourish. It’s so Donna Smoak, so  _ her mother,  _ Felicity chokes back a sob completely overwhelmed.

“Oh honey,” Donna soothes, immediately stepping forward and engulfing Felicity in a hug yet again. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

“ _ Mom…” _

_ “ _ Oh! No tears!” Donna all but screeches. She steps back again, her own eyes are red, but she presses a finger to the corner of each of Felicity’s eyes. “No tears! We can’t ruin your make up! Let’s leave that to after the ceremony! This eye liner will only allow me to breakdown once.”

Felicity huffs out a soft laugh at her mother’s words, “oh mom, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Donna says with a grin. She then holds out her arm to Felicity, “now are you ready to get married?”

Felicity hooks her mother’s arm in hers but pauses at the large oak doors that leads to the garden. She turns to Iris curious, “but William…”

“Thea took him a while ago so I’m guessing he is already at the altar waiting with Oliver for you,” Iris promises. She squeezes Felicity's arm and smiles, “now let’s get you married.”

“Yea,” Felicity echoes as the magnitude of what she’s about to do hits her. 

“I always knew you would marry Oliver Queen one day,” her mother whispers to her confidently. They stand at the entryway as the music plays and Iris makes her way down the aisle.

Felicity looks ahead of her best friend and she finds Oliver instantaneously and the moment their eyes meet all her nerves just melt away. Oliver has William in his arms and the moment the toddler sees Felicity he raises his arm and calls out loudly to her in excitement.

The entire crowd swoons at the display.

“I always knew Oliver was the one,” Donna declares next to Felicity.

* * *

Oliver shifts nervously on his feet, his eyes never leaving Felicity as she slowly makes her way towards him.

He never thought he would end up here, especially after William was born. After William and the clusterfuck that was his short lived relationship with Samantha he had settled on being the best father he could be for his son, dating,  _ marriage _ was something he had decided to forgo completely.

Yet, here he is standing at the altar waiting to get married. To marry Felicity Smoak.

Felicity smiles nervously as she joins them at the altar. Her knuckles white as she clasps the bouquet nervously. She looks across at Oliver and smiles with relief, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Oliver echoes breathlessly.

“Hi!” William chimes in with a toothy smile, and their guests once again break out into laughter.

“Hey, baby boy,” Felicity greets William warmly.

Oliver takes Felicity’s hand and they both nod at the pastor to begin. As the older man begins to talk Oliver tunes him out, his eyes land on Felicity yet again.

Much like when they were kids, Felicity is the only one paying attention. She is completely focused on the pastor as he speaks, but Oliver only has eyes for Felicity. He takes in every inch of her, the way her blonde hair is perfectly curled and resting on her shoulders. 

Her wedding dress isn’t big and poofy like she feared, but instead Thea chose a simple lace form fitted dress that cuts mid calf with a deep V neck and it fits Felicity perfectly.

She looks beautiful, and Oliver can’t believe that he is standing here, next to Felicity Smoak about to marry her.

“Oliver and Felicity have written their own vows, join me as they declare their love for one another.”

Oliver takes the cue and nods at Felicity to go first. She grins at him sheepishly and takes a deep breath.

“Oliver, I’ve loved you for my whole life. I don’t remember a time when I haven’t loved you. Even when we were apart, a small part of me always loved you. For years I felt like a piece of me was missing. But then you opened up your home, your family to me over a year ago and I finally felt like  _ I  _ was home.  _ You _ were home. You are my solid ground. My North Star, and as we stand here today I realized that everything in my life, every mistake, every triumphant has led me back to you, to this moment. This is where I am meant to me, this is where I choose to be. You and William are my world. You’ve made my life whole and I only hope, my only wish is that we will be able to spend the next 50 years  _ together _ .”

“Felicity, 21 years ago you walked into my life, or more like you stole my best friend's seat and inserted yourself into my life, into my heart. You say you don’t remember a time when you didn’t love me, but I know I’ve loved you before I even knew what love was. You have been teaching me about life, about love since we were 9 years old, and now you are teaching my son,  _ our _ son about life and love. Sure, things have changed,  _ we _ have changed over the years, but one thing that will never change is how I feel about you, you will always be...you will always be the love of my life. People change. That never will. I love you, Felicity Smoak for now and forever.”

And just like that they were  _ married. _

* * *

_ Our son _ .

Oliver’s words echoes in her mind as they make their way through the small crowd waiting to greet them. They stop and make pleasantries with some people from Oliver’s office, the mayors of Central City and Coast City and Felicity has to wonder how so many of these people were able to drop all their responsibilities and come to their wedding on such short notice.

“C’mon.” Oliver whispers against her ear tugging her towards the manor where Thea is currently holding a cranky William.

“He missed his nap,” Felicity says unnecessarily with a small frown.

Oliver squeezes her fingers in his and then brings her hand to his lips, “I know. Raisa will take him and put him down for his nap, but first there is someone William needs to meet.”

“Tee!” William cries out in displeasure already reaching for Felicity before they could get to Thea.

“I’m sorry, Ollie. He wouldn’t stop crying for either of you. I was going to take him inside but he only wanted the two of you.” Thea apologizes looking frazzled and uncertain.

“It’s okay, he hasn’t had his nap and I think all the people have been a bit overwhelming for him,” Oliver promises. He kisses Thea on the forehead just as William leaps into Felicity’s arms. “Thanks for watching him for us.”

“Hey buddy, I got you,” Felicity whispers softly, her lips pressing gently against William’s head. She gently rocks him from side to side soothing his cries. She looks across at Oliver to see that Thea has already disappeared into the small crowd. “Can this person wait till after he has his nap? I don’t think he will be the best company.”

“It will only take a second.” Oliver eyes scans the crowd as he rubs Felicity’s back in reassurance. Felicity is about to protest again when his next words give her pause. “I want William to officially meet his  _ other _ grandmother.”

Felicity frowns in confusion unsure why Samantha’s parents would even be here but when Oliver gestures for someone to come to them and her eyes land on her  _ mother _ she can’t hold back her gasp of surprise.

“ _ Oliver.” _

_ Our son. _

They never talked about this. They talked about the wedding, the marriage, the lengths they both will go for William, but they purposely skirted  _ this  _ particular topic.

With Samantha’s appearance, William’s maternity has been the forefront of Felicity’s mind. She’s never voiced it, afraid to be told otherwise. But, she has not felt like  _ just _ William’s nanny for months now.

And then Oliver, her amazing, wonderful thoughtful husband just removed any of her doubts or concerns.

“Felicity!” Donna calls out excitedly as she runs up to them, she stops short in front of Felicity, giving William a small frown, the toddler’s face buried in Oliver’s shoulder. “Who is this little nugget?”

“Will, hey buddy. There is someone I want you to meet,” Felicity coaxes softly till eventually William peers across at Donna with red rimmed eyes. “William, this is your Bubbé.”

“ _ Oh _ !” Donna chokes back a sob at Felicity’s words and Felicity finds her own eyes filling with tears as she nods at her mother in confirmation. Oliver’s fingers press into Felicity’s back, steadying her, grounding her. “Hi William! I’m your Bubbe!” 

William peers at Donna curiously but then buries his face in the crook of Felicity’s neck. “He’s missed his nap and is a little cranky.”

“Well let me take him. I’ll put him down for a nap and you kids can go dance the night away,” Donna says, already reaching for William. 

When the toddler grumbles softly she leans forward and whispers something in his ear. To both Felicity and Oliver’s surprise William stretches out his arms to Donna going to her willing.

“Mom, don’t give him any sweets,” Felicity warns worriedly.

Donna only dismissed Felicity with the flick of her wrist and then whispers to William again and the toddler turns to them and waves wildly at them, “bye!”

“Should we be worried?” Felicity frets anxiously, her teeth sinking into bottom lip. “We should be worried.”

Oliver though only grins and holds out his hand bowing to her, “would you care to dance, Mrs. Queen?”

Felicity giggles, thoughts of her mother and William forgotten. She takes his hand allowing him to guide her towards the makeshift dance floor in the centre of the garden. “I’d love to dance  _ mister _ Smoak.”

Felicity’s loud laughter echoes as Oliver spins her on the dance floor, grumbling at the moniker.

* * *

“You always did say we would end up here,” Moira calls out quietly to Donna in greeting.

Donna tears her gaze away from their children who are currently dancing in their own little world, to look back at Moira. “A little later than I expected, and not the way I would have liked….”

“You mean William,” Moira asks nodding at the baby monitor in Donna’s hand.

“No, William is the blessing in all of this. The reason they end up back in each other’s lives.  _ Together _ again.  _ He _ ’s the reason we are  _ all _ here.” There is more to Donna’s words, Moira knows she’s missing something, no doubt the reasons  _ she _ was unable to contact Donna in the first place. But also, Moira realizes that someone else is completely enamoured with her grandson just like she is. 

“I have to say, up until today I was not even sure if they were  _ together _ , you know?” Moira says thoughtfully, her own gaze moving back to their children. She then looks back at Donna, mindful of anyone who might be around them, “you do know  _ why _ we’re here today right?”

“Iris told me about William’s mother,” Donna divulges, “is it something to worry about? Is she? Who am I kidding they got  _ married _ suddenly, they clearly think she’s a threat if they were willing to do this.”

“Not necessarily,” Moira says thoughtfully now that she’s aware that Donna knows just as much as she does. “I made the suggestion to them mostly to see Felicity’s commitment to Oliver and to William. 

“Yes, Moira Queen is nothing if not thorough,” Donna remarks dryly, and of course Moira does not apologize because she doesn’t regret what she did.

“My point is, we have excellent lawyers. Oliver does not  _ need _ Felicity to win this, he  _ wants  _ her there by his side for him and for William. I get that now.”

The two women stand together in silence as they watch their children dance. Donna suddenly clears her throat, gaining Moira’s attention. “I want to apologize for my behaviour the last time we spoke.”

“Donna that was over 16 years ago.” Moira reminds her gently.

“Yes, but you were right and if I had just  _ listened _ I might have spared Felicity the pain.” Donna continues, “you were right about Noah, about all of it and now his actions are the reason  _ my _ daughter is forever in the FBI’s debt.”

“Not necessarily,” Moira remarks thoughtfully and Donna is already high on alert and spins to face the other woman, “how much do you know about Noah and his involvement with Helix?”

“Not enough, he rarely spoke about his job with me,” Donna grumbles angrily.

Moira hums at her words, “I’ve learned over the years that the answers are right in front of us if only we know where to  _ look _ .”

“What are you suggesting?”

“I’m saying let’s look for your ex husband and end this once and for all.”


End file.
